Riders Destiny
by X-Jinxa-X
Summary: Hicca has always been different from everyone else on Berk, but she never knew just how different she is until she saved the Night Fury. As if being forced into Dragon Training and having to work with Tuffnut wasn't bad enough Hicca is discovering a part of her family her mother tried to protect her from, which may be why Valka was taken ten years ago... FemHiccup Tuffcup
1. Chapter 1

_This is Berk…_

_Its twelve days north of hopelessness and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery._

_It's sturdy place to live, it was built almost seven generations ago though every single building standing now is new. There's not much to do aside from fishing and hunting, but there is a charming view of the sunset. _

_The only "problems" are the "pests". Personally speaking I don't think they're pests, but they don't make life here very easy and they don't help change the peoples' minds. You see while most places have rats or mosquitos, we have…_

The smell of smoke caused fourteen year old Hicca Haddock to sit up at look out her window way as the roofs of other huts were lit on fire. A grin spread across her face as a roar broke through the air. "Dragons..." She grinned happily as she jumped out of her bed and ran out of her hut into the chaos as others came out with weapons, ready to attack the dragons above.

_Most people would leave, but not us. We're Vikings, we have stubbornness issues. _

_My names Hicca, or has most people call me Hicca the Hiccup. My mom named me but I got the nickname from the people here because I am a hiccup, a useless runt and I'm proud of that. I'd rather be a runt over being like the others here. _

She ran through the crowds of people who were rushing to attack the dragons hoping to go unnoticed, but somehow despite her small size people always noticed her whenever she was around. "Get back inside!" One person shouted at her, but Hicca ignored them. "Stay out of the way!" Another person said as she ran past them, ignoring them also. "Stay out of the way Bad Luck Hiccup!" One person cried and Hicca stumbled slightly but caught herself before she could fall.

_The Bad Luck Hiccup, that's another nickname they gave me when I was born because of the mark on my hand and arm. It's a birthmark that wraps around my arm and into the palm of my hand, and the reason it's considered a sign of bad luck is because it's in the shape of a dragon. _

She shot a glare over her shoulder as she kept running, trying to see who had called her by the nickname and not noticing as a dragon flew by, lighting the trail in front of her on fire.

"Hicca!" Someone shouted and the back of her tunic was grabbed, stopping her from running into the trail of fire. She looked at the person and groaned at who it was as he held her in the air like a rag doll. "What is she…? What are doing out here? Get inside! Now!" He ordered and put her down, pushing her away.

_That is Stoick the Vast, Chief of Berk. They say when he was a baby he popped the head of a dragon clear off its shoulders._

_Do I believe it?_

Hicca looked over her shoulder to glare at Stoick but he didn't notice as he threw a wagon at a dragon flying in the air. She frowned and her face filled with sadness as she watched the dragon fall. She looked away and to the forge.

_Yes I do, and I hate that killing a dragon is something that is celebrated here._

As she ran into the forge the blacksmith looked up from the sword that he was hammering and smiled at her as she threw off her vest. "Well nice of you to join the party! I thought you've been carried off!" He chuckled and Hicca pulled on her apron.

"Oh yeah…" She huffed out as she smiled a rare smile while she picked up a very heavy hammer and placed it on the shelf of weapons "The dragons will totally want to eat me over the others." she said sarcastically.

"They need toothpicks don't they?" He joked and Hicca rolled her eyes at him before opening the forge's window way.

_The meathead with the attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber, my teacher. I've been his apprentice since I was little, well, littler. I love working in the forge, but sadly I'll never be the next blacksmith. I'm only working here so I can stay out of trouble and keep my "bad luck" from going around the village. Blacksmithing is one of the only things I like here and Gobber is one of the few people I actually like over most people. _

_I don't belong here. Everyone knows it, even I do and I'm glad that I don't. I don't want to be like them, I don't want to be a Viking who kills dragons. Around here it's every girl's dream to slay dragons, become a shield maiden, and marry a strong man. _

_That's not my dream. My dream is crazy and if everyone knew it they would hate me even more than they already do. _

_I want to ride a dragon. _

_I don't know where the idea came from. It feels like it's always been in my head and while it will sound crazy to anyone else on Berk it sound right to me, like it's what I'm supposed to do._

A dragon flew by and Hicca looked at it amazed by it as it lit the roof of a hut on fire. "Come on!" A familiar voice to Hicca cried and she looked over to see a group of teenagers racing with buckets.

"Hurry up!" The ebony haired one ordered clearly annoyed as he threw his bucket of water onto the burning house, which didn't help much because he didn't have a lot of water.

_That's Snotlout. He's a bigger meathead than Gobber who's bullied me for most of my life because of my birthmark and because I'm not a "true" Viking like him. I'd try to avoid him but it's a small island and sadly, we're cousins, and you can't escape family on Berk. _

"Snotlout! That's not helping!" The blonde with the red headband around her head criticized Snotlout for not doing things "right".

_Astrid is the toughest and most well liked girl on Berk. Anything a boy can do, she can do better and she knows it. We don't talk much and when we do I normally walk away because she wants to be the first shield maiden on Berk to kill more dragons than any other man here._

"G-Guys! N-Nader!" The largest boy with the squeaky voice cried before running away as the dragon from above.

_Fishlegs is one of the few people who I like a bit. He's really interested in dragons, but not in the same way I am. He's just interested in learning more about them and that's it. He's not like me, he doesn't dream of saving or riding dragons. _

_And then there's the twins…_

"Quit being such a baby Fishlegs!" The female twin with braids yelled at Fishlegs as he ran away screaming like a girl.

_There's Ruffnut who's more on the wild side than most though she's not as bad as her brother at times. When we were kids she'd follow Snotlout and Astrid around when they would pick on me, but she stopped doing it as much as Snotlout and Astrid still do. That doesn't change the fact that she's a Viking and we'll never be friends. _

"Hey Butthead!" Hicca looked up from her work as the male twin threw his bucket of water at the dragon, which caused the dragon to roar before it started chasing Tuffnut who quickly started running.

_And then there's Tuffnut. He's just like his sister, a bit crazier though and a bit more annoying than his sister. He used to pick on me also, but he stopped when we got older. The odd thing is he stopped first and then Ruffnut followed his lead. Now he's just annoying like his sister and Snotlout. He's just like everyone else on Berk and is trying to get glory through the deaths of the dragons. _

_He won't change, just like everyone else, and neither will my feelings about what they do. _

Hicca didn't look away as she watched Tuffnut run, trying to get away from the dragon. He ran to the fields and Hicca pushed herself out the window to see what was going on. There were nets being thrown onto dragons in the sky, causing them to fall from the sky and crash into the ground. The sight caused Hicca's face to fill with sorrow and she forced herself to look away as people ran to the dragons planning to take them as their trophies.

"Hicca! Get those swords sharpened!" Gobber ordered and Hicca nodded, getting to work on sharpening some of the swords. As she sharpened the swords she tried to ignore the roars from outside that the dragons let out as they were forced to the ground.

_I can't explain my love for dragons, just like my dream of riding one it feels like it's a part of me. I don't understand it but I accept it unlike the rest of the world around me. I refuse to accept that it is alright to kill such beautiful and amazing creatures. _

_A Nadder Head is beautiful; it has so many colors in its scales and spikes. It's like a rainbow right after a horrible storm. They also have poisonous spikes, making them both beautiful and deadly. _

_Gronckles aren't as pretty as Nadders though they are cute in their own way and not as fast as other dragons, but what they don't have in looks they make up for in toughness. _

_Zipplebacks are the most exotic of all dragons. Two heads working together like a well-functioning family to get the job better. I wish my family could be like that. _

_There's also the Monstrous Nightmare, an amazing dragon with the ability to light its body on fire. It's so beautiful, but everyone wants to kill one since it considered one of the "Big boys" meaning you kill it; you'll get a lot of glory from it._

_But there is one dragon that is so amazing and glorious, which means everyone wants to kill it._

Hicca felt a shiver run down her back, causing her to stop sharpening her sword. A grin spread across her face as she realized what was coming. "Yes…" She whispered to herself excitedly as she heard its cry. She always knew when it was coming before anyone else and everyone knew when it was coming when they heard its cry.

_We call it…_

"Night Fury!" Someone from outside cried and everyone ducked under their shields as a dragon too far from the island and too in the sky to tell what it was, but the purple flames that took out one of Berk's towers gave away what it was. Hicca raced to the window way, grinning as she tried to get a good look at the dragon. Sometimes she saw its shape, but she only saw glances of it since it arrived.

_It never steals food, never shows itself, never purposely hurts someone, and…_

Hicca looked to another tower just before the Night Fury's cry filled the air again. Other ducked but Hicca watched from the window way as the dragon fired at another tower, lighting it on fire and causing it to crumble.

_…Never misses._

_Almost everyone here has the goal to be the one to take down the Night Fury, but my goal is to do just the opposite. I want to keep it safe, just like all the other dragons that are here. I'll do anything to keep the dragons safe. Don't ask how many times I "forgot" to set up a dragon trap around the island or a net just happens to have a hole in it that dragons can use to get free. _

"Hicca!" Gobber cried and Hicca looked back to him. He was switching his hand hammer for forging and replacing it with his axe hand. "Keep working, they need me out there." He said as he hobbled over to the doorway of the forge due to his peg leg. He looked back to her and she stood calm and relaxed with a smile on her face.

He knew what she was doing. She was planning to leave the forge despite his orders. "Stay. Put. There." He ordered awkwardly. When it came to enforcing rules on Hicca Gobber had a hard time being strict with her. He looked at her and the smile that remained on her face which made it clear that nothing he said wouldn't stop her from going through with her plan. "Just don't do anything crazy…" He said before letting out a war cry as he ran into the village to help the others.

Hicca waited a few moments before throwing off her apron and running into the back room of the forge which Gobber gave her to make her crazy inventions. She put her vest back on and pulled the blanket off of her latest invention. "Time to put you to good use." She said as she smiled at the Bola Launcher before wheeling in out of the forge. She ran through the crowds ignoring their yells.

"Get down!" Someone shouted as someone else ran into Hicca, knocking her and her invention to the ground. She began to get up but quickly ducked as a Nadder lit one of the hut around them on fire, just barely missing Hicca and the person who knocked her over.

"What the Hel are you doing out?" Hicca looked over at the person and groaned when she saw that it was Tuffnut who ran into her.

"Nothing." She said stubbornly as she glared at him as something started to twist in the inside of her body.

Tuffnut glared back at her, holding back his need to blink. It almost like they were having a angry staring contest until Snotlout called out, "Tuff! We need your help!" as another hut was lit on fire. He kept his glare on Hicca as he picked up his bucket, which had been knocked out of his hands when they hit each other, before running off to help the others.

Hicca sighed thankful that he was gone. She picked up her bola launcher the tightness in her guts faded away and started running as she wheeled her bola launcher through the village till she reached the cliff that was further away from the fighting. She opened her bola launcher and took hold of the handles as she pointed it into the sky.

_I've got a plan to keep the Night Fury safe. It isn't the best though it's the only one that might work. I need to capture it and hopefully I can get a ship to take it somewhere else, somewhere with other dragons where it will be safe._

_I don't want to do this, but it's the only way I can get the Night Fury and keep it from anyone else from killing it. _

The familiar shiver ran up her back and Hicca knew it was coming. "Come on, where are you?" She whispered to herself as she looked up to the sky, trying to find the Night Fury. The cry filled the air and she quickly aimed the launcher at one of the only two tower that were left standing just before the Night Fury's indefinable purple fire ball hit the tower. Flames engulfed the tower quickly and Hicca used the light of them to find the Night Fury.

She found it and as soon as she did she fired the bola. The blowback threw her back onto the ground and from there she watched as the shape fell from the sky and into the forest, far from the village.

"I…I did it…" She said as the shock hit her. A grin spread across her face and she cheered loudly as she bounced up off the ground. "Yes! I did it!" She cheered happily. Nothing could bring her down from the high she was on. She got the Night Fury away from the village, for now it was safe.

"Thank the Gods nobody saw that!" She said as she started to come down from her high. She didn't even realize that someone was behind her until she heard a growl from behind. She turned slowly to look at the Nightmare as her smile dropped. "Except you…" She said to the Nightmare, which was also on fire.

_I love dragons and I will do anything to help them, but to them I look almost like everyone else on Berk who tries to kill them. They see me as a Viking. _

Hicca quickly took off running as she screamed while the Nightmare chased after her. She ran past the field not noticing Stoick was there trying to wrangle the Nadders that had almost taken off with Berk's sheep.

She ran through the village without thinking, all she could think about was getting away. She hid behind one of the poles that stood tall in the middle of the village just as the Nightmare fired at it. She was glad for her tiny size or the fire would have hit her. She breathed deeply, trying to get her breath under control as she started to look behind the pole, not noticing the Nightmare coming from the other side.

It began to roar but was interrupted as Stoick came out of nowhere and punched it to get it away from Hicca. The Nightmare tried to light its body on fire but when it tried to it spit up lava instead, a sign that it was all out of fire power for the moment.

"You're all out." Stoick said before he began fighting the Nightmare with his bare hands. The fight ended quickly as the Nightmare flew away from the village and Stoick turned back to the pole, which crushed under the weight of itself and fell apart, revealing Hicca behind it.

_…and there's one more thing you need to know…_

"Sorry, dad." Hicca said cringing as the top part of the large torch rolled down the hill, destroying some huts that had been untouched by the dragons and freeing the Nadders from the ropes.

_See, bad things just happen around me._

Stoick sighed deeply, upset and stressed as the Nadders flew away while the sun started to rise. Hicca pressed her lips together to hold back her smile at the dragons flying free and away from Berk. After the dragon flew further away she looked back to her father. He huffed as he pushed his helmet up to rub against his forehead and looked to Gobber. "Take her home. I'll take care of this mess." He said and walked past Hicca. She looked to the corners of her eyes to keep from looking at her father as he walked past her.

_Yep, Stoick the Vast, Chief of Berk, has a dragon loving hiccup for a daughter. Being a hiccup is bad, plus loving dragons just makes things worse, and the fact that I'm a girl just adds to the problems. Chiefs aren't supposed to have single daughters. They're supposed to have at least one son who will take their place as Chief, but since mom…_

Hicca shook her head, don't wanting to finish the thought as Gobber lead her away from the crowd gathered in the village.

"Wow…" Snotlout sighed happily as she walked past him "I have never seen anyone fail that badly." he laughed while Astrid smirked and Fishlegs laughed lightly, not enjoying the pleasure of taunting Hicca like the other two. Neither of the twins did anything, they just let the others do as they pleased.

"Come on Hicca." Gobber said and pushed her forward lightly to get her to pick up the pace. She kept walking, ignoring her cousin as she looked over her shoulder at her father who was already getting to work on fixing the damage done by both the dragons and her.

_Dad and I have differing ideas about dragons, as many know, but things between us haven't been good because of that. Things have been like this since mom was taken from us. _

_I was four when it happened and it was during a dragon attack. Dad was and is still convinced that the dragons took mom and that she is never coming back, but I know the dragons didn't take her. Someone took her, and I know that a person did it because I saw it. _

* * *

**Hi everyone! Thanks for reading this. I wasn't planning on posting this so because I wanted to get a few more chapters written, but I feel like you've all waited long enough. I've changed a few things as you can tell and I feel like they're for the better.**

**I hope you all enjoyed this and I promise there will be an update next Tuesday because I have prewritten the second chapter. I don't know if I'll have a set deadline to update the story because I really don't like them, but for the next few weeks it may be like that.**

**I post updates on my Tumblr blog and will be posting fanart soon.**

**EDIT: So I uploaded two versions of this and published the other one by mistake which was the one with more Tuff and Hicca hinted at it, but I really don't want there to be any attraction between the two of them yet.**


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was halfway over the ocean when Hicca and Gobber reached the hut she shared with Stoick. The whole walk to the hut Hicca had been ranting about her father like she almost always did.

"If we didn't live together, I wouldn't know that we're even related." She said as they got closer to the front door of the hut "He looks at me as if he's been cheated, like someone's taken all of the meat off his sandwich." she said as she stepped onto the front porch. "Excuse me barmaid, I think you brought me the wrong offspring. I wanted a boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side! _This_? This is a runt of a fishbone, bad enough that she's a girl but you've got to give me a runt too!" She did her bed to imitate her father's voice, though her voice shifted back to her own as she finished yelling her sentence.

Gobber chuckled lightly at Hicca's rant and how she imitated her father. "You're going about this all wrong Hicca. It's not how you look, it's how you act." He said, trying to make Hicca understand that her father was concerned with Hicca's actions and love of dragons, though his words only made her face fill with confusion.

"Thank you for summing that up." She said sarcastically as her face changed from confusion to a sarcastic smile.

"You know what I mean Hicca." Gobber said trying to fix the situation "He wants you to fit in." he said, hoping that she would understand.

"I don't want to fit in." Hicca said as she opened the front door of the hut "I just want to be me." she said before walking into the hut and closing the door before Gobber could say anymore. He sighed deeply before walking away from the hut, not bothering to look back as Hicca ran out of the back door of the house and into the forest.

* * *

The Great Hall emptied as Stoick sighed deeply. This was their last chance to end this before winter came, which was when things on Berk always got worse. Food would run out quickly if the dragons got to it and then they'd start going after the people. Stoick shook his head as he tried to push away the thoughts that were wearing heavily on his mind. This had to be the final trip and the final battle. They had to find the nest.

"Well, I'll start packing my panties then." Gobber said as he set his mug of mead down on the table.

"Sorry Gobber, I need you to stay here and train the new recruits." Stoick said as he walked over to his friend and sat down in the seat beside the blacksmith.

"Oh yeah, and while I'm doing that, Hicca can work in the forge." Gobber said sarcastically "Maybe she can finally fix those traps that always get messed up and fix all those nets that got messed up." he said as he looked to Stoick who sighed again.

The two men knew much about why so many of the traps and nets failed to do their jobs correctly unlike many of the others on Berk. Stoick and Gobber knew about Hicca's love for dragons and that she had messed with many of the traps Gobber had created to capture dragons so that the dragons could get free or so that the traps would fail.

"What am I going to do about her Gobber?" Stoick asked the blacksmith like he always did when he didn't know what to do about Hicca. He knew he wasn't close to Hicca thanks to her

"Put her in training." He said and Stoick looked at him shocked by his friend's words.

"I'm serious Gobber." He argued and Gobber looked to his friend.

"So am I." The blacksmith argued back at his friend.

"You know she won't fight them, she's still going on about her crazy dragon activism thing." Stoick said as he pushed himself up off his seat. "She doesn't understand just how back things can get. She refuses to listen, she spends all her time alone in the forest…I try to take her fishing and she goes hunting for trolls!" He shouted as he felt some of the stress that had been wearing on him because of Hicca.

"Trolls exist! They steal your socks!" Gobber argued "But only the left one…why is that?" he added, getting off the topic.

"Gobber, you know what I mean though." Stoick huffed as he tried to get them back on the topic of Hicca. "Hicca isn't a Viking. She doesn't want to be one. It's like there is something in her blood that wants to reject everything around her." He said as he sat back down. Hicca's love of the dragons was nothing new. It had been around for years since they lost her mother to the dragons, though Hicca always claimed that someone had taken Valka. Stoick thought it was a way of dealing with the pain for losing her mother, but this was going on for too long. He wanted Hicca to belong on Berk and have friends like her cousin Snotlout, and he wanted to just talk to her.

Talking was a long standing issue between Stoick and Hicca. Whenever they tried it lead to some kind of fight and Hicca would usually run out of hut to the forest while Stoick went to the Great Hall for a mug of mead. He didn't like that it always happened, he wanted to have talks with his daughter and connect with her like they used to before her mother was taken.

Stoick sighed as he remembered what it was like between Hicca and him when she was little. It was so easy to connect with her, especially whenever they would read together. Since Valka had gone missing things had changed. Hicca started avoiding everyone, stayed in the forest most of the time, and tried to help the dragons instead of going along with everyone that were trying to kill them dragons.

"Hicca is only going to learn how to be a Viking if she experiences it herself." "She needs to know you won't always be there and that she's got to learn to fight on her own." Gobber told Stoick and shifted in his seat so that he was looking at his friend. "I know you're worried about her and you want to keep her safe, but you can't protect her forever. She's going to get out and she is likely out there now! One day you won't be able to protect her from the dragons Stoick, and she will get hurt if she doesn't learn to fight them." He told Stoick.

Stoick remained silent as he looked away from his friend. Gobber stood up and left his friend alone in the Great Hall to think over what he was going to do about Hicca.

* * *

Down at the beach Snotlout, Astrid, and the twins were gathered at the beach. Tuffnut was using his spear to draw in the sand while his sister spoke to Astrid, who was sharpening her axe like she almost always was. The girl had a strange addiction to having everything being perfect around her.

"Man! I am so pumped!" Snotlout said excitedly as he punched his fists in the air in front of him "I can't wait for training!" he shouted excitedly. The twins grinned while Astrid smirked slightly.

"Yeah, this is gonna be awesome!" Tuffnut agreed, just as excited about the upcoming training the teenagers were going to be going into soon. "I wanna get some serious burns…" He hissed as excited shivers ran down his back. The idea of running scared and fighting the dragons was both terrifying and exciting at the same time.

"I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back." Ruffnut added as she looked over her shoulder, wondering where that would look best.

"It's only fun if you get a scar out of it though." Astrid said with a smirk as she let her mind wonder to where would be the best place to get a scar on her body.

"Do you think that there's going to be teams this year?" Ruffnut asked. When there was a new group of trainers they would often be paired up into teams to teach the group the importunateness of teamwork, which was essential when in the battlefield weather it was against dragons or another tribe.

"Gods I hope not." Tuffnut hopped "The last thing I want is to get stuck with Fishlegs." he said as a shiver ran down his back.

"There probably won't be any since its only us and Fishlegs this year." Snotlout pointed out, reminding them that there was only going to be them and Fishlegs in training this year. All the other kids on Berk were too young to be training yet.

"Wait, Bad Luck, won't be there?" Astrid asked and Tuffnut felt his face twitch slight. Everyone on Berk knew who Bad Luck was, but something about Hicca's nickname made him feel…odd. He didn't like the odd feeling which was why he stopped calling her it, and when he stopped so did Ruff because that was how they worked sometimes. When one twin did something so did the other.

"You really think Hicca is gonna be in dragon training?" Snotlout asked using Hicca's name over the nickname many called her when Gobber or Stoick was around. Even his father had a problem with it. "My uncle is crazy protective of her. The last thing he'll do is let her get in the arena with the dragons." He said knowing how protective his uncle was of his cousin.

"Good." Astrid said as she went back to sharpening her axe "I'd hate to be whoever would get stuck with her." she muttered and the others nodded in agreement. While Tuffnut didn't like calling her Bad Luck that was what Hicca seemed to attract, and anyone who was around her was in some kind of danger.

* * *

The forest outside of Berk covered most of the island. Many people came into the forest for wood for housing, the furniture, or firewood. Others came to hunt the animals in the forest for food and fur. Some people would come into the forest to relax, but they wouldn't travel very deep into the forest. The only person who went deeper into the forest was Hicca. The forest was her place, the only place outside of the forge on Berk that she liked.

"How does someone even lose a whole dragon?" Hicca asked herself as she walked through the forest "Some people lose their boots, their mugs, how do I lose a whole dragon?" she asked shouting before she whacked a tree branch. It flung back and hit her in the face. Hicca looked up to glare at the tree, but her glare vanished as her face filled with surprise. The tree was torn up and bending forward like something had crashed into it.

Hicca looked to her left to find unearthed dirt creating a line leading down towards somewhere. Hicca followed the path of fresh dirt. As she got further down the dirt path started to fade away. She looked over a boulder near where the path ended and she quickly ducked back down when she saw something large and black.

She looked over the boulder and her eyes went wide with shock when she saw what looked to be the Night Fury that nobody had ever seen with her bola wrapped around its body. She gulped nervously as she pulled out her dagger to cut the ropes and stepped out from behind the boulder.

Night Fury looked at her growled casuing Hicca to step back out fear. She gulped again and she swallowed her fear. "I'm here to help." She said softly, trying to calm the dragon as she looked over it. Nobody had ever seen a Night Fury so close, and she was seeing it now. A smile spread across Hicca's face as excitement ran through her body, but as her eyes trailed down to his tail her smile fell. Much of his body was uninjured, he had some scratches, but his tail was not. One of his tail fins had been torn off from his tail.

The excitement died as guilt and horror spread throughout Hicca's body as she realized what had happened to the Night Fury. His tail fin was gone and she knew what that meant, he would never fly again. And she knew how it happened.

"I did this…" She whispered as she looked to her hands, dropping her dagger as she stared at her hands.

The Night Fury had been flying fine until she shot it down with her bola launcher. His tail fin was gone because she had shot him down. Hicca dropped to her knees as tears stung in her eyes. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…" She whispered to the Night Fury as the tears rolled down her face. She looked at the dragon and saw it looking back at her.

The way he looked at her a feeling to spread through her. It was like she was looking back at herself. She wasn't sure why, but that was how she felt as she looked back at him. He looked away and closed his eyes, prepared to die.

Hicca pressed her lips together and wiped her tears away before she picked up her dagger and started cutting the ropes. She pressed her birth-marked hand on the Night Fury's cold scale body. She didn't see that the Night Fury's eyes shot open, but something burned in her hand as she cut the last rope. She pulled away as soon as the rope and looked at her hand before Night Fury threw her up against the boulder she had been hiding behind.

The Night Fury glared at her though his eyes didn't cause fear to pump though her body. She stared back at him, eyes wide as she stared into his eyes. His eyes only shifted to look over at her right hand, the one with the birthmark on it. His eyes widened as his eyes shifted back to her, he looked scared but as he stared back at her his eyes seemed to soften as he stared at her. He stared at her for a long time before he let her go.

He turned away from her, ran away before he flew away into the forest. Hicca sat back up, she watched as the Night Fury hit some trees while flying before going in deeper to the forest. She stood up with shaking legs, pressing her palms on the boulder to help her from falling. She turned around to head back to Berk, but as she started to walk her vision became fuzzy and a ringing in her ear began. Before she could wonder what it was she fell to the ground and darkness took over quickly.

* * *

When she awoke she felt worn out, like all of her energy had drained out over despite the fact that she was sleeping. Hicca stood up slowly as she looked around wondering what she was doing for a moment and why she was in the forest before it all hit her.

The Night Fury.

She looked around remembering where the dragon had gone. She walked over to the path and saw that it lead deeper into the forest though as she did she also realized what time it was. The sky's color was fading slowly from deep pink to purple meaning that it was getting late. She huffed knowing that she wouldn't have enough time to get to the Night Fury and she turned around to walk away from where she found the Night Fury and let him go free.

She walked back to Berk as the sun set over the ocean. By the time she finally got back to the village the sky had darkened completely and the stars were starting to come out along with the crescent moon. She walked to her hut and walked into the hut, noticing her father sitting in front of the fire pit. He didn't look up at her and she didn't bother trying to get his attention. She walked to the stairs that lead to her room, but her father looked up as she was midway up the steps.

"Hicca." She froze and closed her eyes tightly before letting out an unhappy sigh.

"Yeah dad?" She asked wondering what it could be this time.

"We need to talk." Stoick told her as she walked over to her as she stayed on the stairs. He looked like he had been thinking for a long time, and that he wasn't very happy about whatever decision he had made. "You're going into dragon training." He told her and Hicca's eyes widened slightly at his words.

"Wait-what?" She asked as she climbed down from the stairs "Dad! I can't kill dragons!" she said. She didn't want to kill dragons, she want to save them and help them.

"That is why you are going into training, so you can learn." Stoick told her as he picked up an axe that was resting on the side against the wall of their hut.

"Dad, I _can't_ kill dragons!" She told him "I just can't!" she said. There was no real reason to why she didn't want to hurt them, she just didn't want to. They were amazing in her opinion and she never wanted to harm them like everyone else on Berk.

"Hicca. It's time for this to end." Stoick said sternly, becoming annoyed with Hicca's words. He handed her the axe and she slumped slightly at the weight of the axe. "You will be a Viking. That means you walk like us, talk like us, and act like us." He told her and she stared back at him in disbelieve.

Dad! I don't want to kill dragons!" She shouted, filling the hut with her voice.

"Hicca! Enough!" Stoick shouted as Hicca's words finally pushed him over the edge of his patiences with her. She stepped back, never liking when her father raised his voice. Stoick gulped, noticing Hicca's fear and realizing that he had failed to keep calm.

"You are a Viking, it's time you began acting like one." He told her as he put his helmet back on "I need to get the ships ready, we're leaving for our next hunt tomorrow." he told her as he slung his bag over his shoulder. He was going to leave the hut, like he always did when he got too angry at her. "Gobber knows you will be in training and he will make sure you go there." He told her before he walked out of the hut, leaving Hicca alone.

Tears stung in Hicca's eyes as she threw the axe her father had handed her to the floor. She ran up to her room and climbed into her bed, hiding under her covers as the tears began rolling down her cheeks for the second time that day. "I wish I wasn't a Viking." She whispered to herself as she stayed under her blanket for the rest of the night.

* * *

**Hey everyone, hope this was wroth the wait. There will be another update next Tuesday since the chapter has been written ahead of time.**

**So...I saw HTTYD 2 last weekend... It was amazing! I am so happy with Dreamworks and I am praying for a HTTYD 3. And I am saying this now, there better not be any spoilers in the reviews! I don't like it when people do that because it can ruin the movie for others! If there are any spoilers in the reviews they are getting removed!**

**I really wanted to focus more on Stoick while he's here and how things are between him and Hicca and how this rift has formed. There's not going to be a lot of Tuffcup in the next chapter, but its coming. **

**Please review and I hope you are back here next Tuesday for the third chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

It was late when Stoick finally returned to his hut after ensuring the ships were ready to leave tomorrow, and stopping by the Great Hall for a drink.

He walked up to Hicca's room to see how she was doing. He could see the outline of her body under her blanket and hear her soft snores, letting him know she was sleeping. He sighed deeply before walking back down the stairs to his own room bellow. He removed his helmet and armor before laying down in his bed.

Sleep did not come easy to the chief of Berk, there was too much on his mind.

Were they going to be alright?

What was he going to do about Hicca?

Did they have enough supplies for the trip?

What was he going to do about Hicca?

Would they finally find the nest?

_What in the name of the Gods was he going to do about Hicca?_

He sighed deeply before turning on his side to stare back at the side of his bed that had been empty for years. If he was sleepy enough some nights he could imagine vividly that his wife was beside him, resting with a smile as she snuggled closely to him. She was the only one who knew how much he loved to snuggle, and he would never admit to how much he missed it and his wife. "I wish you were still here Val." He said as he reached out to touch the pillow she slept on.

It had been almost ten years since Valka disappeared and he had barely moved on since the day she went missing during a dragon attack.

Back then dragon attacks weren't as frequent and they had several years of no dragon attacks, which was why everyone was in such a panic when it happened. Hicca was four at the time, and it was her first dragon attack. Valka took her into the forest, thinking that was the best place to keep her safe while Stoick worked to gain some kind of control during the attack. It was his first dragon attack as a father, there was a pressure to keep his family which he failed to do when his wife disappeared.

He didn't know what happened, nobody did. The only person who actually knew what had happened was Hicca, who was saying a man riding a dragon had taken her mother. Nobody believed her story when she told them that a man had been riding a dragon, it was just too crazy to believe. Everyone decided she made up the story to deal with the stress of losing her mother right in front of her and Stoick had hoped that Hicca's story would change as she got older, but it never did.

The story stayed and the fights began to break out between them as Hicca got older. Her story never changed and her love for dragons grew. Stoick kept praying to the gods that this was just a phase and that soon she would be over it, but it was starting to seem like his prayers were going unanswered.

He wasn't sure how long he stared at the empty spot beside him, but eventually he fell into a dreamless sleep, the same way he always slept for the last ten years.

* * *

Hicca huffed deeply as she stood on the docks. There were dozens of Vikings loading the ships with supplies and weapons that they would need to ensure.

She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be in the forest looking for the Night Fury. She huffed deeply again as she looked around as family said goodbye to their loved one who were leaving to hunt down the dragon.

She noticed Tuffnut and Ruffnut with their father, Tuffnut Senior. Their mother wasn't around, hadn't been for the last seven years. She had died during the winter when the twins were eight and Hicca was nine. After their mother's death the twins seemed to stop bullying Hicca as much as Snotlout and Astrid did. Maybe it was because they lost their mothers and the twins felt sorry for her or something, but that didn't make them friends still.

Hicca watched from the side of her eyes as Ruffnut hugged her father and he hugged her back, clearly going to miss her. A pang of jealousy hit her and caused her to look down at her feet. She didn't like when she got jealous over others who had better relationships with their family. She didn't want to have a good relationship with her family, but something about watching others love their family made jealousy spread through her.

"Hicca." She looked away from the ground and up at who was talking to her. It was her father. She glared at him before she looked back to the ground and glared at her boots. Stoick sighed deeply as Hicca looked away from him. "I'll be back, probably." He said as he stared out at the ocean.

"And I'll be here, maybe…" Hicca said, wishing the chances of her getting away from Berk was much more likely to happen if she knew where she would go. She didn't know anyone else in the nearby tribes and the only person she knew was on a tribe too far away from Berk.

They didn't say anything to each other. They didn't even look at one and other. Stoick continued to stare out at the ocean while Hicca kept her eyes on her feet as the world around them kept moving.

Gobber looked over at the two and huffed before throwing a bag onto the ship before walking over to the father and daughter. He looked between the two before sighing deeply. "Hicca would like to say that she will miss you very much and she wishes you'll find that Thor-forsaken dragons nest so you can stop taking your frustrations out on everyone, namely poor Gobber." He said looking at Stoick before looking back to Hicca as he finished. Hicca didn't look up from her feet or say anything to Gobber.

The blacksmith huffed, knowing she wouldn't say anything. "Stoick would like you to know that he will be thinking of you the whole time, so train hard, don't burn the hut down, and he'll do his best not to get eaten by a dragon or sea serpent. But if he does, well…you know…that's that." He said trying to get his friend's feelings across to his daughter.

"We're Vikings, it's an occupational hazard." Stoick said sternly and coldly as he moved past them. He threw his bag onto the ship before jumping onto it. He looked back at Gobber and Hicca as she looked up from the ground. "I want her back in one piece Gobber." He said to the blacksmith, sternly and protectively as he tried to keep his worries from showing. He looked away and over at the other ships, ordering them to set sail.

Everyone remained on the docks as the ships sailed away. Gothi, the village elder and mute, waved her staff in the air, casting a prayer onto the ships. Once Gothi's finished and the ships sailed away too far for anyone to see them the docks began to empty. Gobber looked to Hicca as they began walking off the docks. "You better be at dragon training today." He told her before he walked away from her.

As her teacher walked away Hicca sighed knowing that she didn't have a chance of getting away, Gobber would just hunt her down and drag her to training.

"Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll kick me out after one day." She said to herself, hopeful that Gobber would just let her go after today.

* * *

"Welcome to Dragon Training!" Gobber said cheerfully as he lifted the gate, letting the teenagers into the arena.

"This is it. No turning back." Astrid whispered to herself as they stepped into the arena. The teenagers looked around in awe at the arena knowing that this was a big step in their lives. "This is my chance…" She whispered to herself.

While the other teenagers looked around the arena in awe Gobber look to the entrance where Hicca was standing, holding the axe her father had given her. "Come on Hicca." He said and pushed her into the arena "You need this." he told her as the other teens looked over to them.

Hicca said nothing as Gobber pulled her into the arena. While the others were feeling excited about what they were going to be doing in here, Hicca was sickened by it. She didn't want to be here and she didn't want to kill dragons.

"What the Hel is Hicca doing here?" Snotlout asked. The last thing he expected was for his cousin to be here.

"Yeah, she doesn't belong here." Astrid said as she shot a glare at Hicca. Hicca just rolled her eyes at the blonde for stating the obvious, she didn't belong here and she didn't want to be here. "The last thing we need is Bad Luck here." she said as she looked up and down Hicca's body. Hicca's eyes narrowed at Astrid and she opened her mouth, ready to fire back an insult, but Gobber stopped her.

"Just line up everyone." The blacksmith interrupted, choosing to ignore Astrid's comment and usage of Hicca's terrible nickname. The teenagers lined up quickly. Hicca stood beside Fishlegs who was standing beside Astrid while Snotlout stood beside her and the twins stood beside him. "Now before we begin I will let you all know, that given we have an even number of people we have, we will be having teams." He told them and all of them groaned.

"What the Hel Gobber?" Hicca asked, pissed that he had decided to have them be in teams "Why do we have to have teams?" she asked. The last thing she wanted was for her to be working with one of them, the only person she could think of teaming up with was Fishlegs since he was one of the few people she could put up with.

"Because teamwork is important. When you are all on the battlefield, fighting or planning an attack, you will realize that you need to work with people that you don't always get along with everyone." He explained as he walked over to the cages that the dragons were locked behind. "I'll be announcing teams after today's first lesson." He told them as he walked over to one of the cages "And speaking of the first lesson…" he said as he placed his hand on the lever of the cage.

"Whoa-whoa-Wait!" Snotlout shouted as he broke away from the line "Aren't you going to teach us something first?" he asked wondering what Gobber was planning.

"I believe in learning on the job." He said smiling before pulling down the lever, releasing the Gronckle from behind the cage. The dragon flew at the teenagers as they scattered apart. "Today is all about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead." He told them.

"This is so messed up!" Ruffnut shouted just before Tuffnut pulled her, just barely missing the Gronckle as it hit the wall where a nearby pile of rocks were laying.

"Oh crap!" Fishlegs shouted as the Gronckle ate some of the rocks.

"What?" Tuffnut asked as he stopped and looked over at the Gronckle.

"Gronckles make their fire power by eating rocks." Fishlegs told him before the Gronckle fired at them. They both jumped out of the way before the fireball could hit either one of them.

Gobber watched as the teenagers ran around, trying to avoid getting attacked by the dragon. "Quick! What's the first thing you need?" He asked shouting, trying to get the teens to think on their feet.

"A doctor?" Hicca didn't think as she spoke the first thing that came to mind. Thinking on her feet while something else was going on wasn't something she was used to; she needed to have a plan and reason to do what she did.

"Plus five speed?" Fishlegs asked, doing the same thing as Hicca by not thinking on his feet. He didn't like thinking on his feet also.

"A shield." Astrid said confidently, knowing that she was right.

"Correct! Now shield, go!" Gobber ordered and again the teens scattered to grab shields "If you have a choice between a shield and a sword, pick the shield!" he ordered.

The twins raced over to the pile of shields and began fighting over one. "Get your hands off my shield!" Tuffnut shouted as he fought to get the shield.

"There's like a million shields!" Ruffnut argued as they pulled back and forth, playing tug of war over the shield they both wanted.

"Take that one there!" Tuffnut argued as he glanced to the shield that was laying on the ground beside them. "Its got flowers on it. Girls like flowers." He said trying to pull the shield away from his sister. This was normal between the twins for them to fight over the little things, but it was still odd for them to be fighting while there was a dragon flying around trying to attack all of them.

Ruffnut pulled roughly on the shield, getting it away from Tuffnut, though then she smacked him on the head. "Oops!" She said sarcastically sweet before glaring at her brother "Now this one has blood on it…" she said as Tuffnut grabbed the shield and their tug of war began again. As the twins continued to fight over the shield they didn't notice the Gronckle before it fired at them, knocking them both to the ground.

"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, you're out." Gobber told the twins as they got up confused and dizzy by what had happened. They quickly got out of the way while Gobber looked around the arena. He was trying to ensure that they were alright, but he was also trying to think about how to put the teams together. "Quick, how many shots does a Gronckle have?" He asked, seeing how they all reacted to thinking on their feet again.

"Five?" Snotlout guessed as he ran.

"No, six!" Fishlegs shouted and lifted his shield as he spoke, which was quickly blasted away.

"You're out Fishlegs." Gobber told him before turning his attention to the only remaining teens. "Those shields are good for something else, noise! Make lots of it and you'll throw a dragons aim off." He told them and Snotlout and Astrid began hitting their shields, causing the Gronckle to shake and blink rapidly, like he was confused. Hicca hit the axe against the shield lightly, not wanting to cause the Gronckle anymore harm.

"_Stop…" _

There was a squeaky voice. Hicca's eyes looked over to Fishlegs thinking that it was him who had spoken, the voice was high pitched enough to be his.

"_Stop…" _

There it was again, but it wasn't Fishlegs' voice. He hadn't even moved his mouth. Hicca blinked out of confusion. Where had that voice come from?

"_Stop…noise…"_

She looked between Snotlout and Astrid, wondering which of them had said it but as she looked between them she realized that neither of them had said it.

"_STOP!" _The voice shouted and then the Gronckle growled before crashing into the wall, unable to know where it was going. Hicca's eyes widened and she gasped as she dropped her axe and shield, realizing where the voice had come from. It had come from the dragon, but how though? How was the dragon speaking and why was she the only one who had heard it?

"Hicca! What are you doing?" Gobber's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Look out!" Astrid shouted as it was realized that the Gronckle wasn't confused anymore. The three teens ran again, but the Gronckle's eyes narrowed on Hicca as she ran and it began chasing her. It fired at her side and then her other, forcing her to run to the wall. It flew down and glared at her, looking like it was ready to eat her but its eyes widened as it glanced at her hand and saw the birthmark on her palm before softening as it looked back to her.

"_You…Rider…"_ It said and Hicca opened her mouth to speak, but was unable to. The Gronckle was really talking!

"That is enough!" Gobber shouted before he hooked the inside the Gronckle's mouth. He pulled it away and threw it into the prison. "Training is over for the day. Congratulations to you all on not dying, even with your close calls." He said and glanced to Hicca as he said the last part.

"Be careful next time, all of you, and remember…" He began and looked back to Hicca as he spoke "…a dragon always goes for the kill." he said, like he was giving a warning to her only. She wasn't really paying attention to the blacksmith. Her mind was too wrapped up in what had just happened with the Gronckle.

Rider…What the Hel was the Gronckle talking about? And how was it even talking in the first place? Nothing like this had even until she saved the Night-the Night Fury! It let her live, why though? And why was she now hearing dragons speak?

She needed answers. She began to leave but Gobber caught her before she could. "And just where do you think you're going?" He asked as he hooked the back of Hicca's tunic, lifting her up off the ground. "We still need to get you lot into teams." He told her as he placed her on the ground. "Line up!" He ordered and the teenagers lined up where Hicca was standing like they had earlier at the beginning of training.

"Now as you all know, teams have been an important part of training." He began as the teenagers groaned out of annoyance. Why did he have to do a speech? "In the battlefield you will have to work with others no matter what. Sometimes you will get along with them." He told them as the twins looked to one and other, hopeful that they would be working together. "And other times you won't." Gobber said and his words caused the twins' faces to fall. "So, for this part of your training you will be teamed up with someone you don't always get along with or know well."

"Wait, what?" Astrid shouted upset and annoyed with what Gobber had just told them "You can't be serious!" she cried.

"Yes, I am." Gobber told her "You will all be partnered with someone. You are to know where this person is at all times, in an out of training. Break this rule and you will both be kicked out of training." He told them and eyed Hicca. She gulped at the look he gave her made it clear that she would be the only exception to the rule. She groaned inwardly, annoyed that her plan to get out of training had failed so quickly.

"Now, Astrid and Snotlout will be partners." Gobber told them. Snotlout's face filled with excitement as Astrid groaned loudly. Hicca let a snicker slip at Astrid's misfortune, which caused the blonde to glare at her.

"Fishlegs and Ruffnut will be partners." He told them causing Ruffnut and Tuffnut's faces filled with dread and confusion.

"Huh?" Tuffnut said confused as he looked at his sister.

"B-but…" Ruffnut stuttered, looking just as shocked as Tuffnut was. They weren't on partners; they had been expecting to be partners. They were supposed to be partners, they were always together.

"And Tuffnut and Hicca will be partners." Gobber finished causing Tuffnut to look away from his sister at over at Hicca, who was standing right beside a very scared looking Fishlegs.

"What?" Hicca shouted shocked by Gobber's words. Why would Gobber make Tuffnut her partner?

"You have your partners and now you know what to do. Rules go into effect tomorrow. I see any of you without your partner you will both be eliminated from training." He warned them, again eyeing Hicca to let her know she and Tuffnut would remain in training no matter what. The teenagers left, most of them annoyed at their teacher and unhappy about their partners. The only one who seemed to be happy was Snotlout and Astrid could see a silver lining in him being her partner.

"At least I didn't get saddled with Bad Luck." Astrid said as they walked across the bridge "Sorry Tuff." she added as she patted Tuffnut on the back, though Tuffnut shot a glare at her. He knew Astrid's concern was all an act. It was just an excuse to use Hicca's nickname.

Hicca rolled her eyes at Astrid. She knew Astird was trying to push her, but Hicca knew how to push back.

"And I don't want someone who miss-timed her somersault dive as a partner." She said as she pushed past Astrid. She glanced over her shoulder at the blond who looked shocked and surprised. She had probably been hoping that nobody else had noticed. "It was sloppy and threw of your reverse tumble." Hicca added before walking away from the others, smirking happily.

She walked away knowing that Astrid was glaring at her back and hearing Snotlout's attempts to fix her bruised ego, but Hicca didn't notice the twin's snickers as she walked away from the arena and headed straight for the forest.

* * *

The twins were walking through the forest, heading to the cavern near the village which was where they used to play Hide-and-Kill when they were younger with Snotlout and Astrid when the other two were bored of picking on Hicca.

"I don't like this." Ruffnut said as they walked "Why of all people did I get stuck with Fishlegs?" she whined as she placed her hands on her face before pulling them down, dragging the skin of her face as she did. "I don't want him to be my partner!" She whined loudly. It wasn't just that it was Fishlegs, she would be upset if anyone else was her partner except Tuffnut.

Sure the twins fought a lot, but they worked well together. The whole point of partnering people into little teams was so that they learned to work with someone they didn't always get along with. She didn't want to be partnered with someone she couldn't trust, and the only person she could trust was Tuffnut.

"Urg... It could be worse." He told her. He didn't like this situation either for the same reason as his sister, and because his partner was Hicca. Tuffnut had barely spoken to Hicca for a long time since they had both been doing their own things, she had been in the forge building some crazy invention while he was hanging out with his sister and Snotlout though that was normal.

In all the years they had known Hicca neither twin knew her really well though that was normal. All they really knew about her was that she worked in the forge and had the bad luck of always being around when something went wrong.

They walked into the cavern before laying on the ground. Tuffnut's hair fanned out on the dirt ground while Ruffnut began playing with one of her braids. The cavern was silent for a while before she broke it.

"Do you really think she's bad luck? Hicca?" She asked as she played with her braid. Astrid had always called Hicca Bad Luck like others on Berk did but the twins had stopped years ago, after the winter when they were seven.

Tuffnut pressed his lips together, wondering what to say. His mind wondered to his mother's words. She used to always tell them to not call Hicca Bad Luck because she wasn't the cause of the problem. Their dad never called Hicca anything, but that didn't stop the twins from calling her it and picking on her though. The only thing that did was that winter.

After that winter they stopped. They still hung out with Snotlout and Astrid, but they completely stopped calling Hicca Bad Luck or anything else the people of Berk called her.

"I don't know…" He said as he stared up at the ceiling of the cavern.

* * *

Hicca walked through the forest as her mind wondered more about what had just happened. The big question she kept coming back to was why, why was she able to hear the Gronckle?

When she reached the place where she had freed the Night Fury she looked down at the cut ropes of the bola before walking the direction that the dragon had flown towards. She walked deeper into the forest and a strange feeling of remembrance came over her as she walked. She didn't know why until she reached the end of the trail and discovered where it ended.

She was at the cove. The cove, the place she had been avoid for ten years, because this was where it had happened.

That was why the walk felt so familiar, because she had taken it before years ago. Hicca frowned to herself. "What am I doing?" She wondered out loud. She had always wanted to know more about the dragons, but thinking she was hearing them… "Maybe I'm going crazy…" She wondered out loud as she looked to the ground. As she looked down she noticed something shimmering in the light which caused her to kneel down and get a better look at it. It was a black dragon scale, just like the Night Fury's.

Suddenly something flew up in front of her so quickly that she moved back to avoid being hit by it. The object flew back down to the ground. She looked down into the cove and saw what had flowed in front of her, it was the Night Fury. It growled and tried to fly up but it failed to get over the wall of the cove. Hicca frowned as she watched the dragon and sadness filled her as she looked at it's tail. The fin was gone and it would forever be gone, reminding Hicca that she was the reason the Night Fury would never fly again.

The dragon moved around, still trying to fly out of the arena but he kept failing. Hicca was upset that the dragon couldn't fly but she pulled out her journal to draw the creature she had wanted to see for years. When she finished, brushing away the other fin to remind herself what she had done to him, she put her journal away but as she did her charcoal stick rolled off the rock she was watching on and into the water below, causing the Night Fury to look up at her.

"_Rider…"_ The Night Fury spoke, just like she thought he would. He spoke without moving his mouth which was odd, but it was also just like the Gronckle had. His voice was different from the Gronckle's, he sounded young

Hicca gulped as a shiver ran down her back. In all the years she had been around them Hicca was never truly scared of dragons, but right now as she looked down at the Night Fury she was. She was scared of what he had done to her, but not to the point that she wanted to kill him. "Did you do this?" She asked as she swallowed her fear "Are you why I can hear the dragons?" she asked him.

"_No…and yes…"_ He told her and Hicca looked down at him confused.

"That doesn't make sense." She said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Did you or did you not do something to me?"

_"I did nothing."_ The Night Fury told her _"You is waking Rider."_ he said and Hicca cringed slightly at his improper use of grammar.

"Awakening? What the Hel does that mean?" She asked as she looked down at the dragon "And why are you calling me "Rider"?" she asked. The Gronckle had called her that too, but why?

"_Because you is Rider."_ He said and again Hicca cringed at his words.

"I don't even know what that is." She told him "Is that why I can hear you and the Gronckle?"

"_Yes."_ The Night Fury told her and nodded his head as he did _"You has not waken other powers yet."_ he said and his words caused Hicca's face to fill with shock.

"Other powers?" She said shakily "There's more?" she asked wondering what other powers there could be.

"_You is waking."_ He said and again Hicca cringed at how he spoke _"You is weak, Rider."_ he said and Hicca huffed annoyed.

"Quit calling me that. I have a name, it's Hicca." She told him as she crossed her arms over her chest. The way he was calling her Rider made her sound like an object, though it was better than being called a Viking.

_"Hicca?"_ He crocked his head to the side as he spoke _"Odd name."_ he said and turned to look up at the sky.

"Well it's better than most." Hicca muttered to herself before she looked up to the sky, wondering what the Night Fury was looking up at. There was nothing wrong with the sky though the dark clouds made it look like it was going to start raining soon. "Why is this happening to me?" She asked turning her attention back to the Night Fury just as thunder boomed from above, causing Hicca to jump back.

"_You bare mark of Rider."_ The Night Fury told her just as the rain started pouring down on them. The Night Fury ran, hiding in the uplifted roots of a tree while Hicca ran out of the cove, heading back to the village. She was halfway back when she suddenly stopped, realizing what the dragon had said.

"Mark of Rider?" She questioned as she looked down at her right hand, looking at the dragon in the palm of her hand. She rolled up her sleeve to look at her birthmark that started at the palm of her hand with the face of a dragon and wrapped around her arm, ending at the tip of her elbow. "This…this can't be what he's talking about..." She told herself as thunder boomed again, causing her to jump and run as fast as she could back to the Berk as she tried to not think about the Night Fury's words.

* * *

**Hi everyone! Hope you've all been well and liked this chapter. **

**So...Stoick's gone, we've gotten to know the twins a bit better, and...the dragons are talking. **

**I decided that dragons don't speak like humans, which is why they speak so brokenly now instead of clear like a human. They are not humans, so they shouldn't talk clearly like them. **

**I've started the next chapter though I won't be posting it next Tuesday. Not sure when it will be up, but I'm stopping the update on specific dates now because I don't want that pressure on me all the time. **

**Find out what happens next time when the teams work together in training and having to stick close together, which is going to be a problem for Hicca as she tries to find out more about the Riders. **


	4. Chapter 4

By the time Hicca had gotten back to the village the clouds had darkened and the rain was still pouring down, though the thunder had lightened which Hicca was thankful for. She never liked the thunder that came with most of Berk's rain because it always reminded her of what happened in the cove and how powerless she was.

She entered the Great Hall and shook her head, which was soaked along with the rest of her due to the rain.

"You've all got to be hard on yourself. Accept your faults so you can fix them." Gobber told the teenagers sitting around the table. "Where did Hicca go wrong today?" He asked as Hicca walked over to the table and picked up a plate of food along with a mug of water. She didn't bother trying to sit down at the table with the others, she knew she wasn't welcomed and her cousin made that clear by sliding on the bench between the open spots.  
"Uh, she showed up." Ruffnut said as Hicca walked by the table.

"She didn't get eaten." Tuffnut added. It was one of the few times that the twins commented meanly to her. They had been doing the same to Fishlegs until Hicca showed up. It was a way of getting back at their partners who they didn't want.

"She's always in the way." Astrid said and glared at Hicca as she walked over to the empty table and sat down.

"Thank you Astrid…" Gobber said sarcastically as he walked to the head of the table. "You need to live and breathe this stuff." He said and as he spoke most of the teens paying attention could see the he was carrying a book which he threw onto the table. "The Book of Dragons, in here is everything we know about every dragon we know off." He said and some of the teens lend into look at the book. The only ones who seem unimpressed by it were the twins and Hicca who was just poking at her chicken, not feeling hungry enough to eat after everything that had happened.

Thunder boomed above again and Hicca shivered as her hands balled into fists. "Study up for tomorrow." Gobber told the teens and some of them looked shocked by his words.

"Wait-you mean read?" Tuffnut asked and he dropped his dagger on the table.

"While we're still alive?" Ruffnut asked before both twins groaned.

"Why read the things when you can just kill the things the words tell you to?" Snotlout asked and Hicca held in her groan at her cousin's words. She didn't feel like making a snarky comment about how reading could help him, she was too busy thinking about what the Night Fury had said.

"Oh! Its so amazing! I've read it like seven times!" Fishlegs said excitedly as the twins looked at him annoyed. "There's this one dragon that can blend into anything and spits acid, and there's this other one that boils water in it's stomach, oh-and then-" He began to ramble but Tuffnut cut him off, also shutting him up.

"Yeah, there was a chance I was going to read it..." He said sarcastically.  
"But now…" Ruffnut groaned, picking up where her brother had left off.

"You can all stay here like losers." Astrid said and glanced over at Hicca with angry eyes "I'm going to go hunting." she said and picked up her axe before walking out. The others followed her, not wanting to stick around to read the Book of Dragons. After the others left Hicca glanced over at the Book of Dragons. She didn't need to read it, she had read it before and she hated it. It had information about dragons, but it always told whoever read it to kill the dragon on sight.

She sighed as she looked at her birthmark hand as the Night Fury's words rang in her ears. What did he mean when he said that she bared the mark of a Rider? Was her birthmark what made her a Rider? How was that possible? As she asked the questions to herself in her head Hicca kept coming back to one. Just what was a Rider? All she knew about being one was that it had something to do with being able to hear dragons, and apparently there were more powers.

Hicca sighed and jumped as thunder boomed above her again, causing her to jump in her seat and then shiver. "I hate thunder." She said to herself and pushed herself up from her table. She walked out of the Great Hall, still trying to make sense of what had happened today. Between getting paired up with Tuffnut for training and hearing both the Gronckle and Night Fury her head was hurting from just trying to understand what was happening.

She walked home quickly, picking up her pace each time the thunder boomed above. Once she was inside of the hut she lit a fire and sat in front of it to dry herself as the warmth started to fill the hut. As she began to dry she thought about what the Night Fury had said again and she looked back to the birthmark on her arm.

She rolled her sleeve up and looked at the birthmark that wrapped around her arm to her elbow. Nobody on Berk knew what it meant, not even Gothi the Elder could come up with a good reason to why she had the birthmark. It was something new and something new could be taken two ways, people either got really excited about it or they feared it and that was how the people of Berk felt about her birthmark. People feared her birthmark and that fear grew into hate because they couldn't just make it go away like they wanted it too.

Hicca stared at her birthmark, wondering if what the Night Fury had said about her baring the mark of a Rider was what her birthmark meant. "This is all too crazy…" She said to herself and she got up now that her clothes were dry. She walked up to her room and crawled into her bed. She sighed deeply before closing her eyes though sleep didn't come easy as she wanted it to.

She tried to not think about how the Night Fury's words could be connected to her birthmark but her mind kept trying to go back to it until eventually she felt asleep.

* * *

_She was crying. She was hiding under her blanket as tears streamed down her face, trying to hold in her sobs. Why was she crying? She heard the door opened and she wasn't sure who it was until they sat down on the bed and spoke. _

"_Hicca? What's wrong Buttercup?" She didn't recognize the voice or the nickname. Why would someone call her Buttercup? The blanket was pulled off of her slowly so Hicca could look at the person._

_It was her mother. She still looked the same as she had before she was taken. _

"_What's wrong Hicca?" She asked again as she brushed some of Hicca's hair, like she hadn't been missing for ten years. She was acting like she had been in the family for years. Hicca opened her mouth to ask what her mother was doing back here, but something else came out of her mouth.  
_

_"I'm cursed! She sobbed and continued to cry. She didn't understand why she was crying. It was like someone else was controlling her body but there was also a familiar feeling as she cried. The pain running through her was familiar as was the warm feeling that was coming off her mother. _

"_No you're not, who told you that?" Her mother asked as she brushed hair out of Hicca's face.  
_

_"Everyone! I'm cursed and everyone says it's because of this!" She shouted as she held up her arm, the one with her dragon birthmark wrapped around it. "I hate it!" She shouted and Hicca was taken aback by her own words. She couldn't remember hating her birthmark this way. She was so mad at it and she wanted to tear it off of her skin. This was so strange, why did she hate her birthmark so much? _

"_Hicca, you shouldn't say that. It's a part of you."_

"_I hate it! Nobody else as one and everyone knows it's me who is cursed!" She shouted, but she didn't sound like herself. Nothing about this seemed like her. She sounded so…childish, like she was a little kid. _

"_Hicca…" Her mother sighed softly and whipped the tears from her face gently. "You aren't the only one with a mark like this." Her words caused Hicca's head to snap up at her mother. What was she talking about? She pulled her hem shirt down and to the left, enough to show her shoulder but not her breast. _

_Hicca started in shock at the mark on her mother's shoulder that lead down below the hem of her shirt. It was a birthmark, and it was in the shape of a dragon. "This is a part of who we are Hicca, we are different..."Her mother's voice drifted, like she was moving away from Hicca as she spoke. Everything became fuzzy and blurred until it dissolved into darkness._

* * *

Hicca eyes opened slowly and the tears rolled down from the corner of her eyes, into her ears. She sat up slowly and she looked at her birthmark. She sat up and wiped her tears away as she thought about her dream.

It wasn't a dream she had just had, it was a memory. There was so much in that one memory that she had forgotten in the last ten years. She didn't remember that her mother used to call her Buttercup or why until now. It was because they used to go to the cove a lot in the summer time and there were bundles of buttercup flowers there that her mother would place in her hair. She didn't remember that there was a point in her life when she hated her birthmark so much that she had wanted to rip the skin off of her arm because everyone would say that she was cursed or "The Bad Luck Hiccup" and the nicknames just got to her. She had even forgotten that her mother had a birthmark also.

Her mother had a birthmark…which was also shaped like a dragon.

Hicca ran her hands through her hair and shook them, ruffling her hair and making her bedhead worse. "What the Hel does this mean?" She asked herself. Her mother had a birthmark, but why? Why did they both have birthmarks shaped like dragons? Birthmarks didn't work like that!

"I need to go to the cove…" She said to herself as her hands dropped from her hair. There was only one creature that could possibly give her some kind of answer and it was the Night Fury. She got up from her bed and raced out of the backdoor of the hut, racing into the forest.

* * *

The Great Hall was almost completely empty like it almost always was in the morning but it was even emptier than normal with so much of the village gone on the dragon hunt. The teens sat at their usual table. Astrid ate her breakfast, ignoring Snotlout as he tried to get her attention while the twins yawned and groaned, tired from having to get up so early. Fishlegs was reading from the Book of Dragons.

"What do you think we'll be doing in training today?" Fishlegs asked as he placed the book down, not noticing that Gobber was walking over to the table and he had heard Fishlegs' question.

"You'll all find out in the arena later." Gobber said and spooked the teens who hadn't noticed him until he spoke "Though those who have read the section on the Deadly Nadder in the Book of Dragons should have a better chance over the others." He hinted to the teens and he smiled before walking away.

Astrid smirked while Fishlegs smiled, both knew the Book of Dragons well and knew the Deadly Nadder page and were confident in their abilities to take down the Nadder. Snotlout smiled with confidence, though the worry of failing could be seen cracking through his face. The twins looked to each other with matching worried looks before they both looked to the Book of Dragons which was laying open in front of Fishlegs.

"Give me that." Ruffnut demanded and slid the book over to her. She looked down at the page, but before she could even start reading Tuffnut pulled it away. He turned to his side and used his shoulder to block his sister from taking the book back.

He looked down at the book and stared at the words. He tried to read them but he just couldn't, he kept rereading the words trying to get them to make sense but they just wouldn't. He looked over at his sister and she pulled the book away. "We'll be fine without the book." She told him, knowing what he was having trouble with. Both the twins had trouble reading, they knew how to read but they could never make sense of the words when they were reading.

"Yeah!" Snotlout agreed and slammed his hand down on the table. "Who needs books when you can just kill the things the book tells you to kill?" He asked and Astrid rolled her eyes at her partner.

"I can't believe you're my partner." She muttered to herself as Gobber walked over to the table after finishing his breakfast.

"Get your partners and meet at the arena." Gobber told them before noticing that someone was missing "Has anyone seen Hicca?" he asked. He had hoped that Hicca would be at breakfast but she hadn't shown up yet.  
"I saw her running into the forest on my way here." Fishlegs said and Gobber looked over at Tuffnut.

"Tuff, go get her." He told the male twin who groaned unhappily.

"Why do I have to go get her?" He asked, practically whining.

"She's your partner." Gobber told him sternly. Tuffnut groaned again and got up from his seat at the table.

"Great…" He groaned as he walked out of the Great Hall. "Who the Hel goes into the forest in the morning?" He asked as he walked toward the forest.

* * *

Hicca walked the same way she had yesterday to the cove. When she got there she saw the Night Fury standing over by the water. He was pushing his face into it. He looked like he was trying to get some fish, but he couldn't. He pulled his head out and huffed annoyed before realizing that someone was watching him. He looked up at the top of the rocks and saw Hicca sitting there.

"_You is back."_ He said and his face brightened as he looked at her.

"Yeah." Hicca said as she cringed slightly at his grammar. Why was he speaking like this? "What did you mean yesterday when you said I bare the mark of a Rider?" She asked remembering what he had said yesterday.

"_You is marked Rider."_ He told her as he titled his head to the side.

"So is this birthmark what makes me a Rider?" Hicca asked as she lifted her arm up and pulled her sleeve back. "Are all Riders born with a mark like this?" She asked. Her mother had a birthmark also, but did that mean that others had marks like this.

_"No."_ He told her and he shook his head as he did. _"You is marked because you is blooded."_ He said and confusion filled Hicca's face. What did that mean?

"You are not making this easy to understand. What does "blooded" mean?" She asked him.

The Night Fury looked like he was about to speak again but another voice interrupted him. "Hicca! Where are you?" Hicca looked over her shoulder as she tried to figure out who was calling her name. It wasn't Gobber, she knew that. "Come on! We've got training!" The person called and she groaned loudly realizing who it was. It was Tuffnut.

She looked back down at the Night Fury who frowned as she started to get up, figuring out that she had to leave. He turned away as did Hicca who began running to find Tuffnut before he somehow found the Night Fury. She ran quickly to find Tuffnut who was wondering around the forest, still shouting her name.

"Hey!" She shouted and interrupted Tuffnut's shouts. He looked over at her and he glared at her, clearly annoyed.

"Come on, we're late for training." He said and turned his back to her. He began walking and Hicca followed unhappily. She wanted to learn more from the Night Fury about the Riders. Why did she and her mother have birthmarks and what did the Night Fury mean when she was blooded? What the Hel did all of this mean?

* * *

**Hi everyone! Sorry for the short chapter but I was kind of stuck between adding a lot in one chapter or slowing things down a little. I decided to slow things down at bit so that we can build up more.**

**The reason why Tuff and Ruff don't read is real, there are just some people who can read but can't understand what the words are mean all together. I really thought that would work better for the twins then them just not being able to read. They can read, it's just a bit harder for them to. Also for everyone wondering why Toothless speaks the way he does, it's because he was too human in the last series. I wanted to tone down on the human and make it harder for him to speak like one. He's a dragon! It's not normal for them to speak to humans so a lot of them don't know how to properly.**

**So Tuff and Hicca will be working together next time... This can't be good. What's gonna happen when they fight the Deadly Nadder? What will it have to say to Hicca? What more will she learn about the Riders? And just how will her and Tuffnut being partners effect her as she tries to figure out more about the Riders?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait but things have gotten a little crazy. **

**I've started my internship and I'm learning the ropes of the job while still doing my babysitting job, a family issue has gotten to the boiling point and lawyers are getting involved, and I had a slip into depression at the beginning of the month.**

**I'm trying to stay out of the family drama so I'll be pushing myself into writing more on this.**

**Anyway, sorry for the long wait again. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

The walk back to the village was silent and tense between Hicca and Tuffnut. Hicca didn't mind the silence, but Tuffnut did. He hated silence, it was like an itched at his skin and it also made him feel like he should have been curling backwards into an uncomfortable position. He never liked it and slowly the itch of the silence was starting to get to him.

"What the Hel were you doing in the forest in the morning?" He asked finally breaking the silence. He really didn't care what she had been doing; he just wanted the silence broken so that the itch would go away.

"I… Nothing…" Hicca began, unable to think of an excuse that would make sense. "It's none of your business anyway." She told him as she crossed her arms over her chest as they walked through the forest.

Tuffnut looked over his shoulder at her and glared at her. "Whatever." He huffed annoyed before looking away from her. The last thing he wanted was to keep putting up with her but he didn't have a choice right now. He wanted to stay in training. Training was his only chance of becoming something on Berk and he had to work to get to kill the Monstrous Nightmare. If he killed the dragon then he would earn a respect that could get him almost anything.

"You didn't have to get me and I would have liked it if you hadn't. I want nothing to do with training." Hicca said as they walked. She had hopped everyone would just forget about her, they always did unless something went wrong. When something went wrong she was blamed for things going wrong. She was a scapegoat, something everyone could blame their problems on and hate because they wanted something to be angry at. The dragons couldn't be blamed for everything, so she was blamed for what the dragons couldn't be blamed for.

Tuffnut stopped and turned to glare Hicca. This was why he didn't like Hicca so much, she never cared about how her actions affected others and did whatever she wanted to do over what she should have been doing which was staying out of the way and listening to the ones around her.

"I know you don't want to be in training, but I will not lose my chance to stay in dragon training, so come on." He said and before Hicca could open her mouth to say anything Tuffnut grabbed her arm to pull her along with him as he began walking again.

As he dragged her by her arm Hicca was annoyed and also surprised. He wasn't holding her arm tightly or painfully. He was being oddly gentle, like he didn't want to hurt her. Hicca pulled her arm away and crossed her arms over her chest again as they continued walking until they were out of the forest.

When they finally got to the arena the others were waiting. "Glad to see you two decided to show up." Gobber said as Hicca and Tuffnut walked over to the others. Astrid and Snotlout shot glares at Hicca, upset that she had made them late for dragon training. "Now that everyone is here, grab a weapon and get into the arena." Gobber told them as he walked up to the outside of the arena where he could watch the teens.

Everyone chose a weapon before walking into the arena. Astrid chose the axe, Snotlout and Fishlegs chose hammers though Fishlegs' was smaller than Snotlout's, the twins picked matching spears, and Hicca picked up the only remaining weapon which was a plain staff.

"You're not going to do any damage with that." Tuffnut told his partner as they picked up their shields.

"I know." Hicca said without looking at him. She didn't want to hurt the dragons and she knew the staff wouldn't do much.

The first things the teens noticed as they walked into the area were tall walls that had been put up for some reason. It was going to make moving around harder since the walls took up so much space now.

"What's with the walls?" Fishlegs asked just before a Nadder flew up onto the top of the wall and screeched at the teenagers before trying to fire at them, causing them to scatter down different ways that the walls lead too.

"Today is all about attack!" Gobber shouted from above "The Deadly Nadder is light and quick on its feet. Your job is to be lighter, quicker, and stick to your partners!" he told the teens as they ran around, trying to find their way in the man build maze. "And don't make a fool of yourself in front of the Elder. She'll be choosing the dragon killer this year." Gobber's words caused everyone to look up.

They hadn't noticed her at first, but now they saw the tiny and elderly woman named Gothi. She was the village Elder who hadn't spoken for years. She was one of two people on Berk who had lived to be such an old age; the other was a grumpy famer name Mildew who was not liked on Berk unlike Gothi who was loved by almost everyone.

Fishlegs' scream caused everyone to snap back to the reality that they were in. He and Ruffnut ran as the Nadder screeched at them before throwing it's spikes at the two. "I'm really starting to question your teaching methods!" Fishlegs shouted as Ruffnut and him ran down one path.

"Look for it's blind spot! Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it, and strike!" Gobber said as Hicca and Tuffnut ran down another path and turned at the corner that Ruffnut and Fishlegs had come from.

Tuffnut stopped suddenly when he realized he was right in the Nadder's blind spot. Hicca crashed into Tuffnut lightly and when she did she inhaled the scent from his vest.

"Oh Thor…" She groaned "Do you ever bathe?" she asked in disgust as Tuffnut groaned annoyed.

"If you don't like it get your own blind spot!" Tuffnut told her as he shoved her lightly with his shield. Hicca glared at the back of his head and shoved him back. He shoved her again and the two quickly forgot about the Nadder in front of them as they pressed their foreheads together.

"Why don't I give you one?" She threatened as she pushed her forehead against his. Between what had happened with the Night Fury, being forced into dragon training, and having to be paired up with him… She was finally pushed over the edge. She was never one to really threaten others like she just had to Tuffnut.

Tuffnut was taken aback for a moment by Hicca's threat. He had never heard her threaten anyone and it made her sound stronger than she looked. The Nadder screeched again, snapping Tuffnut out of his shock as the dragon readied to fire at them. Hicca didn't even think when she grabbed Tuffnut and pulled him around the corner, just barely missing the fire as they stood against the wall.

"_Rider…"_ Hicca froze when she heard a voice. It wasn't one she had heard before and she quickly figured out who it was. She looked over the corner at the Nadder, who was looking right at her. _"Others in danger…need help…" _The words of the Nadder send shivers down Hicca's body. She had no idea what it was talking about, but it scared her. She wanted to ask who was in danger, and why were they?

"Come on!" Tuffnut yelled and pulled Hicca down one way as Astrid and Snotlout came out from around another corner. The Nadder tried to follow Hicca but as it did Astrid was readying to throw her axe at the dragon before Snotlout pushed her out of the way lightly.

"Watch out babe I've got this." He said before throwing the mace in his hand. He had meant to hit the dragon but ended up hitting the wall away from it. The Nadder laughed as Astrid glared at her partner. "The sun was in my eyes Astrid!" He defended though Astrid just rolled her eyes at him before the Nadder roared again and they started running down the makeshift halls again. "Do you want me to block out the sun? I can do that ya know. I just don't have time right now to." He exaggerated as they ran from the Nadder that was chasing them.

The three pairs of teams ran through the maze trying to avoid the Nadder as it chased them, causing some of the walls to fall. Hicca and Tuffnut had been running around most of the maze, and every time they ran into the Nadder it tried to say something to Hicca. She would say the same thing she had when her and Tuffnut had first run into the Nadder, that others were in danger. What danger?

_"Rider…"_ Hicca stopped at the sound of the Nadder's voice. It was female just like the Gronckle, though her voice was a lower pitch than the Gronckle's and there was a sharpness to her voice.

Tuffnut didn't even notice that his partner had stopped as he ran around another corner and continued running until he banged into his sister and Fishlegs.

Hicca turned around and saw the Nadder. Throughout most of training she had been quick and putting up a fight, but now she seemed to have relaxed. _"Others in danger…Rider…help…please…" _The Nadder sounded scared, like it was worried about something else.

"Who are the others?" Hicca asked softly. The Nadder looked like she was about to say something when a shout caused the Nadder to looked over and screeched again when she saw Astrid. "Astrid wait!" Hicca shouted, but both Astrid and the Nadder ignored her as they jumped onto the walls. She chased them as they hopped form wall to wall, causing the makeshift maze to crumble. "Astrid!" Hicca shouted as she chased the two from the ground, trying to get Astrid and the Nadder to stop.

"Hicca! Look out!" Astrid screamed as she jumped from the last wall. She landed on top of Hicca, her axe dug into the shield Hicca had been carrying throughout training.

"Astrid! Wait!" Hicca argued as Astrid got up off Hicca and pulled her axe, which was stuck in Hicca's shield. Hicca kept trying to get Astrid to stop as the Nadder got closer, but the blonde ignored her as she tried to get her axe out of Hicca's shield. The Nadder was now too close for Astrid's comfort and she knew she had no other choice. She pulled the handle of her axe and forced the shield off of Hicca's arm and swung around, smacking the Nadder in the face and causing the shield to break apart as the Nadder went down.

"Nice work Astrid." Gobber told her as he walked over to get the Nadder back into her cage. Astrid huffed as a short look of shock filled her face before she shook her head and turned to look at Hicca as the other girl got up off the ground.

"Is this some kind of joke to you?" The blonde asked as she pointed her axe at Hicca, causing her to still. "Our parents' war is about to become ours. Figure out which side you're on and figure out your place." She told the other girl before lowering her axe and walking away from Hicca. Astrid's words were nothing new to Hicca, she had heard them all her life and they didn't hurt as much now. The only pain that came from the blonde's words felt like a tiny pinch now.

Hicca didn't even look at Astrid as she walked away from her. She kept her eyes on the Nadder as the dragon was lead back to the cage it was kept in my Gobber. "Get in there." Gobber ordered as the Nadder looked over at Hicca with pleading eyes. It was trying to tell her something but now it wouldn't speak to her as it was forced back into the cage and she wondered what the Nadder had meant when it said that others were in danger? Who were the others, and what was the danger?

She turned on her heel and began walking out of the arena, not looking at her partner, the elder, or anyone else as she walked out of the arena. She didn't notice the smile that had grown on Gothi's face as she left.

Astrid glared at Hicca before looking at Tuffnut who was helping his sister up off the ground. "What the Hel is with your partner?" She asked and Tuffnut shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know." He told her as he looked away from Astrid. He didn't know Hicca well but he had noticed that she was acting a little odd around the Nadder. Something was up with her, and a tiny voice in the back of his head was telling him to figure out what. He wanted to avoid being around Hicca at all costs.

* * *

As Hicca walked through the forest, her mind still stuck on what the Nadder had said. There were others in danger, but who were in danger and what was the danger? The way the Nadder looked there seemed to be a pain in her eyes. It made her feel like the Nadder was completely serious which was why she couldn't stop thinking about what she had said in the arena before Astrid had messed up the chance that Hicca could figure out what the Nadder had been talking about.

When she finally reached the cove she saw the Night Fury standing by the water. He was trying to catch the fish in the water, but it couldn't. It didn't seem to have enough speed to get the fish though. Hicca looked to the dragon's tail which was causing the Night Fury's drop in speed and her face fell. She couldn't believe that she had done that to the dragon, she had wanted to keep dragons safe but instead she had hurt one and ended its ability to fly.

The Night Fury pulled his head out of the water and looked over at Hicca. _"Rider! You here!" _He cried happily and Hicca smiled softly at him.

"My name is Hicca." She reminded him as she walked over to him. She glanced to the water before looking back at the Night Fury. "Are you hungry?" She asked and her own question made her wonder, when was the last time that he had eaten?  
A growl came from the Night Fury, but it wasn't a dragon growl. The growl came from his stomach and the Night Fury's gills fell in a sheepish way. _"Yes."_ He admitted shyly and Hicca couldn't help thinking that he was so cute like that.

"I can help with that." She told him as she started to take her boots off. She rolled her pants up to her knees and pulled her dagger out. The Night Fury growled at the dagger, this time it came from his mouth and made it clear that he was ready to attack her. "I'm not going to use it on you." Hicca told him in a soft voice as she stepped into the water.

The Night Fury relaxed as Hicca looked down at the water, waiting for a fish to come close enough to her. When one did she struck quickly, stabbing her dagger into the water and the fish. She pulled the fish out and put her dagger back in her vest before walking out of the water. She held the fish out to the Night Fury and he stepped closer to her, opening his mouth as he moved it closer to the fish.

With his mouth open Hicca could see the inside of his mouth. "Toothless?" She said, surprised that he had no teeth. "I could have sworn you had-" Hicca was cut off the teeth suddenly popped from the Night Fury's gums and he quickly bit into the fish, snatching it from Hicca and tossing it into the hair so he could swallow it whole. He looked at Hicca happily before licking the upper part of his face. "-teeth…" She finished as a shiver of shock ran though her body.

The Night Fury looked at her and she smiled at him, but her smile dropped as he pushed his face closer to her. She stepped back until she tripped on her own feet and her back hit the bolder behind her. The Night Fury looked at her and he looked her in the eye. The look in his eyes caused Hicca's body to relax as she looked at him.

"_Thank you Ri-…Hicca."_ He corrected himself before his eyes rolled to the top of his eyelids as he began to heave. He continued for only a few short moments before forcing half of the fish he had just eaten into Hicca's lap. Hicca held in a groan of disgust at the fish in her lap as the Night Fury sat down, mush like a human. _"You eat!"_ He insisted and Hicca held in her sigh as she looked at the fish.

She bit into the fish and forced herself to swallow the whole raw piece of fish. Another shiver of disgust ran through her body and she groaned as she felt the fish go through her body. "I need to ask you something." She said as she began to get up. "I spoke to a Nadder, and she said something about others being in danger…" She began and the Night Fury, who had been calm and relaxed almost the whole time, suddenly changed. His eyes narrowed and he growled at her.

"_No! Bad! Don't go back!"_ He hissed before racing away. Hicca watched him as he ran to the other side of the cove. Hicca looked shocked at the dragon and wanted to go over to him, but she stopped herself. He clearly was upset by what she had just asked, and he wanted to be alone. She knew what he wanted because she wanted it almost all the time. He wanted to be alone and she would let him have that.

* * *

While she let the Night Fury have his time alone she stayed at the cove, not wanting to go back to the village yet. It felt good to be back in the cove again after so long. She hadn't come since she lost her mother and she forgot how nice it was. It was like being in the forge, but the cove felt warmer somehow and it felt safer even though this was where her mother had been taken from her.

Hicca sat on one of the smaller boulders and she picked up a stick so she could draw in the dirt. The hours passed as she drew. She drew Nadder and the Gronckle, as detailed as she could, and she was starting to draw the Night Fury when she felt someone looking over her shoulder.

"_What is you doing?"_ She looked over her shoulder and sighed. She really couldn't take the way he spoke anymore, it driving her crazy.

"What **_are_ **you doing?" She corrected him as she looked him in the eye "That's the proper way to ask." she told him.

"_Oh…what are you doing?"_ He asked and Hicca couldn't help smiling a little, glad that he had spoken normally.

"Drawing you." She answered as she stopped to look at him. "Why don't you speak normally?" It was a question that had just popped into her mind. He could speak, but not like she could. Why was that?

"_I have few words…have never needed to speak this way."_ He told her and his words made sense.

"Oh…that explains a bit." She said now thinking about it. If the Night Fury had never needed to speak before than he might not know how to speak properly. Also, speaking like that was a human thing. He was a dragon and thinking about it know Hicca could now understand why he spoke the way he did.

"_Is you going to draw more?"_ He asked, shaking Hicca from her thoughts. She held back her sigh of annoyance at his improper speaking. She couldn't be annoyed really now, he was clearly trying his best to speak to her.

"Yeah…I am." She said and smiled at him before looking back at the ground so she continued to draw in the dirt. The Night Fury was quiet as he watched her finish her drawing of him.

When she finished the Night Fury he raced away from her. She looked up from the ground and over at him as he tore a large part of the tree off. He held it in his mouth as he dug it into the ground and dragged it along, making a long line that twisted and curved all around and over the other lines.

Hicca got up from her seat and looked at the drawing, stepping on the line and causing the Night Fury to growl. Hicca froze and stepped back off the line. The Night Fury relaxed, like he had before Hicca asked him about what the Nadder said. She looked between the Night Fury and the line before stepping onto the line again. The dragon growled and Hicca took her foot off the line again making him stop before doing it again. He growled again and Hicca took her foot off the line and stepped over it.

She looked at the Night Fury and smiled at him before looking down to step between the lines. As she stepped between the lines she twisted and curled as she did, like she was dancing. She continued to move, losing herself in her steps, until she felt a figure behind her. She froze and turned around to face the Night Fury who was looking down at her.

They stared at each other before she reached out with her left hand to touch him and he pushed back a little causing Hicca to stop. She looked down at her left hand before lowering it and looking away as she raised her right hand, her birth marked hand. She didn't look at him as she held her hand out but when she felt his cold scales against her hand she gasped and looked over at him to see that he had pushed his head into her hand.

Hicca gasped when she felt him push his head into her hand. A rush ran through her arm as she looked over at the Night Fury, shocked that she was touching actually touching a dragon. She let out a laugh of excitement but suddenly stopped when she felt her arm start to wiggle on its own. Another rush of energy ran through her arm, but this one was painful and it made it feel like her skin was being set on fire. She let out a scream and the Night Fury jumped back as Hicca's birthmark started to glow before her arm was engulfed in flames.

Hicca started to scream at the flames but she suddenly stopped when she realized that the flames that had engulfed her arm weren't burning. She was a blacksmith assistant, she knew what getting burned was like and she could tell that she wasn't being burned.

"_Calm!"_ Toothless shouted as he pounded his feet on the ground _"Calm!" _he cried as Hicca calmed herself. The flames that had engulfed her arm seemed to fade back into her arm. Her sleeve was burnt enough that Hicca knew she was going to have to fix her tunic tonight.

"What in the name of Odin was that?" Hicca asked, still in shock over what had just happened. Why had her arm just burst into flame like that and why had it not hurt her?

"_You is getting stronger…"_ He told her before his head shot up. His gills move on the sides of his head, like he was hearing something Hicca couldn't. _"Someone is calling for you."_ He told her and Hicca could hear what he could hear also.

"Hicca! Hicca! Where the Hel are you?" She heard who was calling her, it was Tuffnut. Why was he here?

"I…I'm coming back tomorrow." She told the Night Fury before leaving the cove. She had to keep Tuffnut away from the cove even though she hadn't gotten any answers to why her arm had just erupted in flames. Once she was out of the cove she raced to find Tuffnut and keep him away from the cove.

She found him quickly since he had kept shouting and when she found him she realized quickly that he had been closer to the cove than she thought he was.

"Will you quit shouting?" Hicca shouted and Tuffnut fell silent at her words. "Why are you shouting?" She asked. He had been shouting like he was in a panic.

"I heard you scream. Scuse me for freaking out." He said. Living with Ruffnut had pushed something into his brain. He found with her a lot, but if he ever heard her scream he would be sent into a panic because he knew she was in trouble. When he was forced into looking for Hicca again and he heard her scream the panic ran though his body like it would if his sister was in danger during a dragon attack."What the Hel happened to you?" He asked as he pointed to her sleeve that was slightly burned.

"I…I was trying to light a fire and accidentally lit my sleeve on fire." She lied quickly, trying to cover up the truth about what had happened moments ago.

"You work in the forge…" Tuffnut stated as he stared at Hicca "How did…never mind." he said, deciding to just drop the conversation. He could quite understand how Hicca had lit her sleeve on fire when she worked in the forge almost every day. "Come on, Gobber wants us all to join him for dinner at the tower." He said as he turned around and began walking back to the village.

Hicca followed him as they walked through the forest. As she walked she looked down at her hand and stared at her birthmark. She had hoped that she would get answers about what the Nadder had said, but instead she had gotten more questions. What had the Nadder been talking about when she said others were in danger, and why had the Night Fury freaked out when she asked him about it? Also, why had her arm burst into flames like it had? The more questions she had she started to wonder just what was she? She had this birthmark and the dragons called her Rider, but what did that mean? And why did her mother have a birthmark like hers?

Was her mother a Rider also?

* * *

**So many more questions! How will Hicca learn anything about the Riders and what it happening to her?**

**Please Review! It's just a little thing but it means a lot.**

**By the way, thanks for all the favorites and follows! You guys are amazing and I love you all!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey everyone! Thanks for waiting for this! I've been having some computer issues and I lost the files that I've been working on including the file for this so I had to rewrite most of this twice. **

**And now I want to say thank you so much for the reviews, follows, and favorites. They mean so much to me and they've really been helping me though my family issues which have been causing my depression and anxiety to act back up. Thank you so much for everything and sticking with this story. **

**Now, onto the story! Enjoy!**

* * *

By the time Hicca and Tuffnut got to back to the village and finally reached the tower the sun had set over the ocean and night had taken over the sky. The whole walk from the forest Hicca couldn't stop thinking about what had happened at the cove. Her arm had burst into flames, but why? What did this mean? She was very deep in her thoughts, so deep that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going and ended up walking ahead of Tuffnut before walking into the wall of a hut.

Tuffnut cringed when Hicca hit the wall and fell onto her butt. He walked over to Hicca and looked down at her as she held her head. "You okay?" He asked as he held his hand out to help her up.

"Yeah…" She groaned as she pulled her hand away from her forehead and looked up at Tuffnut. "I'm fine." She said as she pushed herself up off the ground, ignoring Tuffnut hand. She began walking again and Tuffnut huffed to himself before he began walking behind Hicca.

He was slightly upset by Hicca ignoring his help but as he followed her he noticed that she was deep in her thoughts. His annoyance with Hicca faded quickly as he wondered what she was thinking about. As he thought about what Hicca could be thinking about he started to think about what she was doing in the forest today and yesterday.

"Nice of you two to show up." Gobber said cheerfully when Tuffnut and Hicca finally reached the tower where everyone else was seated. There were only two open seats which were next to where Snotlout was sitting and were right by each other.  
"Finally!" Snotlout shouted as Tuffnut sat down beside him. "Can we start cooking now?" He asked as his cousin took the last open seat beside Tuffnut.

"Yep, dig in." Gobber said and the other teens placed their chickens over the fire to cook. "We ran out of chicken so one of you has to have fish." The blacksmith told the two teenagers as he held up two sticks, one with a chicken on it and a fish on the other.

"I'll take the fish." Hicca said and took the fish from Gobber. As she took the stick with the fish on it Gobber noticed the burnt sleeve of her tunic.

"What in the name of Thor happened to your sleeve?" He asked. Hicca froze for a moment, unable to say the same lie to Gobber like she had to Tuffnut. Lying to Tuffnut was one thing, but lying to Gobber was another. "Did you light yourself on fire again?" Gobber asked before Hicca could say anything.

"Yes…" She lied in an annoyed tone.

"Well…at least it wasn't your hair again." Gobber said and chuckled lightly as the twins, who had both been slouching, sat up properly as matching excited look spread across their faces.

"Wait what?" Tuffnut asked as Hicca shot him a hateful glare.

"Oh this sounds interesting…" Ruffnut grinned as Hicca's glare shifted from Tuffnut to her before shifting over to Gobber.

"Gobber…you promised…" She growled as a large grin spread across the blacksmith's face. He knew how much she hated him telling others about what had happened almost three months ago when she still had a long braid from years of growing her hair out.

"Well you see…there is a specific reason to why Hicca keeps her hair short. It's because-" He began before Hicca interrupted him.

"The Boneknapper doesn't exist!" She shouted and Gobber's words fell silent. Something about Hicca's words made Gobber stop and his face contorted to one of annoyance.

"Why!" He shouted dramatically as he waved his chicken in the air. "Why must you always deny what I have told you Hicca?" He shouted and he pointed his chicken at her. "All of my stories can keep you safe from the dreaded Boneknapper." He said as he looked to the other teenagers, still waving his chicken around at them.

"The what-knapper?" Tuffnut asked confused and trying not to laugh at what Gobber was saying. He looked to Hicca who circled one finger by her ear and pointed to Gobber as she did.

"I am not crazy!" He shouted and Hicca stopped as she tried to hold in her giggles.

"The Boneknapper is a dragon that makes armor out of the bones of other dead dragons." Fishlegs clarified excitedly. He knew everything about every dragon in the Book of Dragons, and he knew everything about the Boneknapper. "It would be an amazing dragon, if it existed." He said and Gobber glared at Fishlegs, annoyed with the boy's comments.

"So wait." Snotlout spoke up. "I'm confused. Is it real or not?" He asked not understanding what everyone was talking about. Gobber made it sound like the dragon was weird, but the way the others were talking was making it sound like it didn't exist.

"Not." Astrid answered as she flipped her head, trying to bush her bangs out of her face without using her hand like she always did. "The Boneknapper is just a story. It doesn't exist, it's a myth." She said as Gobber's face filled with anger.

"That's it! Story time!" Gobber shouted loudly as Hicca rolled her eyes at her teacher. "Let me tell you about my first time encountering the Boneknapper… I was about your age and on vacation with my family…" He began as Hicca tried to block out her teacher as the others listened to the crazy stories that Hicca had heard almost her whole life as Gobber's assistant.

Throughout dinner Gobber droned on about how he had spent years chasing after the Boneknapper throughout his whole life since he was a teenager. As her teacher spoke Hicca stared at the fish cooking over the fire in a daze, blocking out Gobber's words like she almost always did whenever he started going on about his stories.

Her mind was wondering back to the Night Fury and what the Nader had said. There was something more going on, something deeper about the Riders that she had yet to figure out. There was some kind of danger, but the Night Fury seemed like it didn't want to tell her what it was even though the Nader was clearly worried about whatever the danger was.

There was something the Night Fury wasn't telling her.

"And with one twist, he took my hand and swallowed it whole. And I saw the look on his face. I was delicious!" Hicca snapped out of her thought and looked over at Gobber as he continued to speak. "He must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another one of them took my leg!" He said as he gestured to his peg-leg. The others looked amazed by what he was telling them, but Hicca just rolled her eyes.

She didn't understand this. What was so fascinating about killing dragons and getting limps eaten off by them? She didn't understand it, and probably never would. It was a viking thing that she didn't understand and probably never would despite being born and growing up here.

"Isn't it weird to think that your hand was inside a dragon? Like if your mind was still in control of it, you could have killed that dragon from the inside, by...crushing its heart or something…?" Fishlegs wondered out loud as he got weird looks from the others.

"I can't believe you're my partner…" Ruffnut groaned lightly.  
"I swear, I'm so angry right now!" Snotlout said angrily as he tore the wing of his chicken off. "I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I'll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight…" He said as he waved the wing of the chicken around. "…With my face!" He added quickly before biting the wing as Astrid rolled her eyes at him.

"That' would never work." She told him "You'd want to use an axe to cut the legs off." she said as she picked up the axe from her mother that she carried everywhere with her.

"Uh-uh-uh, no." Gobber said as he shook his head "It's the wings and the tails you really want. If it can't fly, it can't get away." he told the teenagers as he torn the wing of his chicken off, making his point clearer. "A "downed" dragon... is a dead dragon." He told them.

Gobber's words caused a sickness to pool in her stomach. She knew Gobber's words were right, any dragon that lost their wings or tail fins were doomed to die. The whole point of being a dragon was to fly and without wings or tail fins a dragon was going to die. The Night Fury was doomed to die, and there was nothing she could do…

…or maybe there was…

"Well, I'm off to bed." Gobber yawned as he stood up from his seat and streached. Hicca didn't even look up at him as she stared at her fish. Her mind was racing to a way that she could get the Night Fury to fly again. The tail fin was like leather, thin but tough. The bones of the tail fin were thin and likely light, which was easy to make from metal. She could do this! It was so easy and it could work. A smile spread across her face as she started to think about how she could build this.

"You all should get some shut eye too. Tomorrow we get to the big boys, but who will have the honor of killing the dreaded Monstrous Nightmare?" Gobber asked and the excitement within the group grew as did their smiles. Hicca's excitement was growing too and she slipped away from the group as Gobber kept speaking. "Your partnerships are going to be tested tomorrow. You two are going to need each other so you all should come up with a plan tonight." He told them and Tuffnut huffed annoyed.

Again, he was being pushed to work with Hicca. He looked to his side to glare at Hicca, but when he did he realized that the spot beside him was empty aside from the fish on the stick Hicca was going to eat for dinner. He looked to the stairs and could see her running down the stairs quickly. He huffed again and looked away as he sat back and placed his arms behind his head. She wasn't his problem and he didn't need to speak to her, at least that was what he kept telling himself.

* * *

Hicca raced into the forge and pulled out her journal, flipping to the page that she had drawn the Night Fury on. "You aren't going to die." She said as she pulled out her charcoal stick and redrew the other tail fin. "I promise you will fly again." She swore before getting to work.

She started drawing a large tail fin base on her memory from spending time with the Night Fury. As she drew it she made it look more like it was crafted from leather and metal rather than an actual dragon tail fin. Once the drawing was done she hung it up on the wall in front of her desk so she could look at it when she needed it before going to the scarp pile to dig out whatever metals she needed and could use.

She started building the "bones" of the fin by taking all of the scrap swords and taking their handles off to start heating them up. Once they were heated she pulled them out of the fire and hammered them into thin metal that resembled the bones of the Night Fury's tail fin before throwing them into the barrel of water so they hardened.

Once those were finished she started tearing apart an old shield's bolts that she could use to hold the metal bones in place.

When that was finished she started to cut out the leather in the shape of the tail fin. Cutting the leather ended up being much harder and she had to do it over a few times because she had made it too small the first few times before getting it to the right size. When she finally did she started putting the metal into the leather and then sowed a strap onto the leather so that she could strap it onto the Night Fury's tail.

When it was finally finished Hicca looked at it and grinned. "This is going to work." She said to herself "It has to." She couldn't let the Night Fury died. There was so much they didn't know about the dragon and there was so much she didn't know about the Riders. She wanted to know more and figure out just what was going on about them.

She smiled and set the prosthetic fin under her desk before sitting down at her chair and laying her head down on her desk and yawned before closing her eyes. She fell asleep quickly to the hope that tomorrow the Night Fury would fly again.

* * *

This was annoying.

Tuffnut couldn't stop thinking that as he stared up at the ceiling above him. After dinner at the tower he and Ruffnut had gone home to go to bed, both choosing to ignore Gobber's idea of talking to their partners. Unlike him Ruffnut had fallen asleep quickly and was sleeping peacefully in her bed across from his. Her snores were filling the room and he was used to them, but right now they weren't helping with the fact that he couldn't sleep.

He didn't know what it was that was keeping him up and it was adding to his annoyance. He wanted to sleep and he wanted to know what was keeping him up.

He got up out of his bed and put his boots and vest on, leaving his helmet and tunic behind. He left the room and walked past his father's room. It was weird not having his father around. Tuffnut was used to both his father and Ruffnut's snores that would fill the house. Maybe that was what was keeping him up, it was just weird not having his father around.

It had just been the three of them since the twins' mom pasted away. Sure their father would leave for a dragon hunt every once and a while, but it was still weird not having him around.

Tuffnut huffed before leaving the house. He walked through the village, just trying to wear himself out so that he would be able to sleep.

The village was mostly dark and quiet. There were a few torches lit around the village but aside from that it was mostly dark. As he walked near the forge he noticed there was a light coming from inside it. "What's Gobber doing up still?" He asked as he stopped and stepped inside not even thinking that someone other than Gobber would be in the forge. When he walked inside he was hit with the warmth that was coming from the forge. Someone had been working, but as he walked into the forge he realized that Gobber wasn't there.

He saw the light coming from the backroom and he followed it. He stepped into the room and his eyes locked on the figure that was resting at the small desk. It was Hicca and she was fast asleep. The burnt smell made it clear that she had been the one who had just been working. Tuffnut huffed about to leave when he noticed the drawings on the walls.

Most of the drawings were of dragons and they were very well detailed. These were so much better than the ones in the Book of Dragons. The details in the Gronckle's bumps and the Nadders spikes made them look so life-like, almost like they could pop off the page and walk around. Tuffnut looked away from the drawings and looked over to Hicca as she slept peacefully, still unaware that he was standing in her backroom.

How had she been able to drawn these?

The best dragon drawings were done by the writers and artist of the Book of Dragons who had normally killed the dragons before they put the information in the book. These drawings were so much better than he had ever seen.

Hicca groaned and Tuffnut froze as she started to wake up. She looked over to where Tuffnut was standing and her eyes narrowed at him. "What the Hel are you doing here?" She asked, though it sounded more like a demand.

Tuffnut glared back at her. "I was wondering why there was a light on in the forge." He answered as he crossed his arms over her chest.  
"I was working late and fell asleep." Hicca told him, keeping her actual work secret. She shifted, trying to hide the drawing of the prosthetic fin from him.

"Alright…" Tuffnut said as he watched Hicca. She was acting weird, weirder than usual. It was like she was trying to hid something and part of him wanted to know what she was up to, but he was trying to ignore that part of him. "…uh, you've got some nice drawings…" He said as he pointed at the drawings on the other wall using them to focus on something else.

"Um…thanks…" She said, surprised by his compliment. Nobody had ever really complimented her drawings aside from Gobber and it actually felt nice having someone else say that they liked her artwork. It was nice, but still weird since it had come from Tuffnut who she was way too used to him always being a complete ass. She crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her hand on her arm, not sure what to do now since she wasn't used to Tuffnut acting like this. "I…I've got to go home…" She said awkwardly, trying to get away from Tuffnut and get rid of the awkwardness that was filling the room.

"Oh, yeah…sorry…" Tuffnut said and he started walking out of the backroom. Hicca blew out the candle and walked out of the room and followed Tuffnut out of the forge. Once they were outside Tuffnut looked to her and rubbed the back of his neck, unsure what to do now since he had said he liked her drawings and it made things just become awkward between them. He wasn't sure why things had ended up that way, but now he just wanted to get away. "…I…I'll see you tomorrow…" He said, trying to get away as fast as he could.

"Bye…" She said and waved slightly before walking away. Tuffnut turned away to walk back home as Hicca walked to her own home. Once he was home he walked up back to the room he shared with his sister. Ruffnut was still sleeping and she hadn't noticed that he had left the room. He laid down in his bed and huffed annoyed realizing that his walk hadn't helped. Now he had even more issues sleeping since he had spoken to Hicca.

While Tuffnut was lying in his own bed, unable to sleep, Hicca was in her own home and was walking into her own room. She laid down in her bed and stared up at her own ceiling. Part of her was excited about tomorrow and the other part of her was hooked on what had just happened between Tuffnut and her. His compliment had thrown something off in her head. She wasn't used to him saying something like that and it was causing her to be stuck on it.

She huffed and turned onto her side, trying to get some sleep. She had to get up early to get the prosthetic tomorrow morning before going to see the Night Fury, maybe get some fish for him.

* * *

The next morning Hicca got up earlier than usual and raced to get everything for the Night Fury. She went to the forge and got the prosthetic. She then left the forge and went to the docks to get a basket of fish for the Night Fury.

The walk from the docks to the cove took longer because off the weight on her back from the basket. It took a while but eventually she reached the cove. The Night Fury was already awake when she had gotten there and he was trying to get some fish from the water.

"Hey bud…" She said softly and the Night Fury who looked up at her as she walked over to him. "I brought you something I think you'll love." She said as she set the basket of fish on the ground and kicked it over, dumping the fish onto the ground. "I got you some cod, some salmon, and a whole smoked eel." She said but at her words the Night Fury roared loudly.

"_Eel! Bad! Bad!"_ He roared as he pushed himself back away from the pile of fish. Hicca

"Okay! Okay, just calm down." Hicca said as she tried to calm him down. She pulled the eel out of the pile. She held it up and the Night Fury hissed. "Calm down, just calm down…" She told him and she tossed it to the side. "Yeah I don't like eel either, makes me sick." She said as the Night Fury smiled at her.

"_Thank you."_ He said before digging into the pile of fish. As he ate his fish Hicca moved to his tail and sat on it. She strapped the prosthetic and compared it to the other fin. As she did the Night Fury looked up as he realized there was something on his tail, something that felt like his other tail fin that he had lost. He raised his wings as Hicca looked down at his tail.

"There we go. Looks like it's a perfect match so it should wor-" She said to herself before she was cut off as the Night Fury jumped off of the ground and tried flying. Hicca scream and grabbed onto the Night Fury's tail. As he flew he started to fall because the prosthetic fin didn't work like his real one did and Hicca could tell from the way the prosthetic was flapping against the wind. She grabbed it and pulled it tightly causing the Night Fury to shoot up, just barely missing hitting the ground.

The Night Fury flew up out of the cove and into the sky. Hicca held onto the prosthetic fin so it was straight like the real fin as they flew over the forest. A grin spread across her face as a burst of excitement spread throughout her body. They were flying, they were actually flying! It was so amazing to be flying like this!

"Yes! Yes it's working!" She laughed happily as the Night Fury flew back down into the cove and over the water. "Yes! I am a genius!" She cried happily until the Night Fury turned sharply. She skipped across the water like a pebble hitting it until she stank into the water. The Night Fury barely made it back to land when he crashed into the water.

"Yes!" Hicca cheered as she popped up out of the water. She couldn't believe that it worked the way it had. Sure they had crashed, but she had still been able to get the Night Fury to fly again. The prosthetic had worked though not the way she had hoped it would, but now she knew it could work and she could build off from that to get the Night Fury to fly again.

She swam over to the land as the Night Fury climbed out of the water. "Are you okay?" She asked him as she walked over to him. He nodded at her before smiling a toothless grin.

"_You help me. I flew again." _He was amazed also. Neither of them could believe that it had actually worked.

"Yeah. Sorry that didn't work as well as I hoped it would." She told him and his face fell slightly because it didn't work like a normal tail fin would. "But I think I know how to get you to fly again." She told him and his face lifted as she told him. "

"_Really?" _Hicca nodded her head just before he tackled her to the ground. She groaned as she hit the ground and looked at the Night Fury, trying to figure out what he was doing before he started to nuzzle the side of her face. _"Thank you! Thank you!"_

"You're welcome, now can you please get off me?" She asked and the Night Fury did as she asked. She stood up and walked over to the Night Fury's tail. She started to undo the buckle of the prosthetic fin and as she did the Night Fury looked over at her.

"_Why is you doing this?"_ He asked her as she pulled the fin off and folded it back up.

"I don't like it when the dragons die, and I try my best to safe them." She explained to him as she looked down at his tail. "Besides, it's my fault you're like this." She didn't look up as she spoke. She kept her eyes down on his tail, feeling sick about what she had done. She had never wanted to do this to him or any other dragon. She wanted to help him, but instead she ended up hurting him.

The Night Fury looked at her and realized what she was thinking. He moved and turned to push his head into her hand. "I forgive you." He told her and Hicca smiled down at him. She petted his head but as she did she remembered what happened yesterday. She kneeled down and looked him in the eyes as she did.

"I know you're not telling me something." She told him and she watched as he tensed up. "What is the danger the Nader told me?" She asked and his face filled with anger.

"Nothing! You is better not knowing!" He shouted at her before roaring and ran away to the other side of the cove. Hicca huffed and stood back up, realizing that her attempt to get him to tell her what was going on had failed. She picked the empty basket back and slung it over her shoulder before walking out of the cove.

She didn't understand this. There was something going on and she wanted to know what it was, but the Night Fury wouldn't tell her what it was. She sighed deeply as she tried to figure out who she could talk to. The Night Fury was the only dragon that she could talk to without anyone figuring out what was going on, but he wouldn't tell her what was going on or what the danger was. What did he not want her knowing?

* * *

When she got back to the village Hicca went straight to the forge. She hid the prosthetic tail fin underneath her desk and set the empty basket beside her desk. She yawned loudly, tried from having to get up so early. She started walking out of the forge and saw someone standing outside of the forge.

"Hello Gothi." She said politely like she always would to the mute woman. She was the wisest and quietest person on Berk. She hadn't always been a mute, but Hicca had only heard that she once spoke before suddenly falling silently one day.

Gothi smiled at Hicca and tilted her head slightly before walking slowly towards the temple. Hicca looked at her confused and started to follow the elder, unsure what she wanted from Hicca but she was assuming that the elder wanted her to go to the temple with her.

Hicca followed Gothi for a short while before reaching the temple down by the ocean. The temple always made Hicca feel nervous. It was very worn out and old on both the outside and inside. The word was clearly old and made Hicca worry that one day it would just cave in on itself. The inside was very dark, the only light coming from the small candles lit around the inside of the temple.

"Why did you bring me here Gothi?" She asked, fully expecting that the elder would be writing on a piece of paper like she always would when she was trying to communicate with others.

Gothi just smiled at her before opening her mouth. "We have a lot to talk about." She said and Hicca felt the world around her stop. Gothi was talking…Gothi _was_ talking! Gothi, who had never spoken for years, was speaking! What the Hel was going on?

* * *

**Yep, she's back. Gothi is a part of this story and she is talking. I decided to bring her back. I will be truthful, I didn't plan on bringing her back but the more I thought about it she fit in it. So for everyone who wanted her back,she is back!**

**And for everyone who's been waiting for more Tuffcup I promise that there will be a lot more in the next chapter. I've already started working on the seventh chapter so it should be up soon. **

**And for anyone who has found my DevianArt Account, that is for my personal work. I will post some Rider's Destiny stuff but it will probably on be the covers. The rest of the stuff that ends up on my DA account is my personal work, it is not what I was trying to do with my Tumblr account. I made my DA account just for my work and to keep all my art somewhere. **

**Also, this is for RaiderDragonWolfGuardian, I will not be reu-ploading the original of Rider's Destiny. Due to my computer issues the file is gone, and personally I would not re-upload it even if I had the file because it is not something I am as proud of as I was when I first wrote it. I make a lot of mistakes in it and didn't write what I wanted to. I'm not happy with the original of Rider's Destiny and that is why it is being redone.**

**Thanks for reading. Please leave a review and tell me what you thought.**


	7. Chapter 7

"Come on! Let's go! I heard were going to fight the Zippleback today!" Ruffnut said as she bounced giddy and excited about training today.

"You seem way too excited about this." Tuffnut comment as he watched his sister bonce and almost dance all around. It was weird seeing his twin acting a bit more girly then he was used to seeing from her.

"The Zippleback is an amazing dragon since the two heads work together to find. One head releases a gas that they hid in until it's ready to attack and when it is the other head sparks the gas which causes this huge explosion." Fishlegs started to ramble in a shaky and fearful voice. He wasn't looking forward to fighting the dragon like everyone else was since it was one of the more powerful dragons. "They also have this ability to-"

"For the love of Thor will you just shut up Fishlegs." Snotlout said, cutting Fishlegs off before he could finish his sentence. "Nobody cares about what the stupid book tells you, we're all more interested in learning through fighting." He said as the group started to cross the bridge.

"The Book of Dragons does help, though it is more fun to learn without it." Astrid said, swaying her hips as they walked across the bridge and into the area.

"Good morning everyone." Gobber grinned at the group as they teens walked into the area. He looked at the teens before looking at Tuffnut. "Tuffnut, where is Hicca?" He asked the male twin.

"I don't know…" He said with a shrug, leaving off the part that he didn't really care.

Gobber glared down at Tuffnut and crossed his arms over his chest. "She's your partner. You should know where she is." The blacksmith told Tuffnut as he looked down at the teen. "Now go find her and then we can get start training." He ordered and Tuffnut huffed before turning on his heel to walk out of the arena to find Hicca.

Finding Hicca ended up taking much longer then Tuffnut had expected. He had looked all over the village, the Great Hall, and the forge before huffing. "She must be in the forest or something." He huffed as he started walking back to the arena to tell Gobber that his partner was gone and there was no way he was going into the forest to find her.

As he walked to the arena he noticed the temple. He pressed his lips together before walking closer to the temple. It always gave him a weird feeling despite it being one of the most sacred places on Berk, but it was also the only place that he hadn't checked for Hicca. He sighed before walking into the temple. "Oi, Hicca! You in here?"

* * *

"What the Hel is going on?" Hicca couldn't stop the words from coming out of her mouth. She was completely shocked by what was happening right now. Gothi was talking! In the fifteen years that she had been living on Berk Hicca had never heard Gothi speak until now.

First the Night Fury spoke to her, then her arm lit on fire, and now Gothi was speaking for the first time in years. Somehow Gothi speaking just seemed so much stranger to her than the dragon talking and her arm lighting on fire.

"Much is happening Hicca, but neither of us has the time to go into details." Gothi explained "Your can hear the dragons, yes?" she asked, changing the subject to what she felt was more important at the moment.

"Y-yeah…" Hicca nodded her head and looked down at her birthmark. "How do you know about…"This"?" She asked as she moved her hands. She wasn't sure what to call this whole situation or what was happening, so calling it "This" would have to do for now.

"I lived in the world of the Riders Hicca, and once I was one." Gothi said and she rolled her shirt's sleeve up so that Hicca could see the dragon swirling mark on her shoulder. It looked similar to the mark on Hicca's arm and her mother's mark, but there was also something different about it. It was black and it's color was starting to fade because of Gothi's age. It took a moment but Hicca quickly realized that the mark looked like that because it wasn't like her birthmark. The mark on Gothi's arm was a tattoo, not a birthmark.

"Can you hear the dragons also?" Hicca asked as she looked away from Gothi's mark to look her in the eye.

"I cannot." Gothi said as she shook her head. "You and I are not the same but we are similar Hicca, just like our marks." She said as she covered her shoulder back up. "I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to smack everyone you called you cursed because of this mark." She said as she looked at Hicca's birthmark.

"What do you mean by us being different?" Hicca asked not understanding what Goth meant by them being different. Did she mean their marks? And just what did the marks really mean? The Night Fury said she had the mark of a Rider so the marks had something to do with the Riders, but just what made her and Gothi's different aside from the fact her's was a birthmark and Gothi's was a tattoo. There was something more that made them different Hicca could feel it, but she couldn't tell what it was.

"I do not possess the powers that you do." Gothi told her and Hicca's face filled with confusion.

"Why not?" She asked. Why didn't Gothi have powers like her? Was it for the same reason for their dragon marks being different?

"We don't have much time Hicca. Training will be starting soon and there is not enough time to tell you everything. I can tell you the rest later, okay?" Gothi said and Hicca opened her mouth to speak again, but she was cut off by Gothi. "You can hear the dragons now, but have your other powers awoken?" She asked, quickly shifting the subject away from Hicca asking anymore questions for why they were so different.

"My other powers? You mean like my arm lighting on fire?" Hicca asked as she looked to her birthmark.

"Yes." Gothi said as she nodded her head. She reached up and grabbed Hicca's arm to get a better look at it and Hicca didn't pull her arm away. "Have you been practicing lighting and controlling it?" She asked and Hicca pulled her arm away at Gothi's words.

"Practicing? Why would I practice it? It burned my sleeve!" She said as she looked at her sleeve. She still had yet to fix her sleeve. All of the craziness had just made her push it aside till she had some free time. "I don't even know how I did it the first time, it just happened." She said as she looked back to Gothi. She still didn't understand what had happened when she touched the Night Fury's head, the energy just seemed to come out of nowhere.

"I need you to try and get your arm to light on fire." Gothi told her and Hicca looked at her like she was insane.

"What?" She asked. Why would Gothi want her to light he arm on fire? She still didn't even know that

"Hicca, you need to learn how to control it. If you don't you could end up hurting someone." She told her and Gothi's words had caused Hicca to look back down at her arm. Just how was this controlled? If she wasn't careful could she really hurt someone? She thought to herself for a moment before sighing. Despite everything that had happened to her on the island she didn't want to hurt anyone, she also didn't want anyone to know about what she was now.

Knowing how Vikings acted she would probably be killed within an hour.

"Okay, than I need you to listen." Gothi told her and Hicca nodded her head. She still had so many questions about what was going on and how Gothi knew so much about the Riders, but training was going to be starting soon and she wanted to know how to control her powers.

"Alright." She agreed with a nod of her head. "What do I have to do?" She asked as she rolled her sleeve up so that she didn't burn it anymore and have to lie to Gobber to why it had burned more.

"Relax and focus on your arm." Gothi told her. Hicca took a deep breath and looked at her arm. She focused on it, not sure what she was supposed to be expecting. She thought about what had happened when her arm first lit on fire and the energy that had run through her arm when it had burst into the flames that have burned her sleeve.

Moments of focusing on her arm Hicca felt the rush of energy run through her arm and down to her fingers just before her arm burst into flames, filling the usually dark temple with light. At the sight of the flames Hicca felt the fear start to fill her along with anxiety. As her anxiety rose the flames around her arm intensified, growing larger and hotter.

"Calm down, but keep focused on the fire." Gothi told her and Hicca nodded her head. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself as she focused on her arm. As she focused on her arm the flames' intensity decreased as did the heat. Hicca let out a deep breathe she had been holding as she waited for the flames to calm down.

"Take another deep breath and relax even more." Gothi told her and Hicca took another deep breath before letting it go, shaking slightly as the flames of her arm faded away and her arm returned to normal.

"H-how…" She tried to speak but her whole body was shaking from the shock of what had just happened. She had been able to control it. She couldn't believe that she had been able to control this power. She stared at her arm, still shocked by how she had been able to control the power that she still didn't quite understand.

"If you can calm down and focus on it you can control it, and it you can control it you can control who or what it hurts." Gothi told Hicca as she smiled at the girl. She was proud of how Hicca had been able to control her powers. "You still need more work, but you are doing quite well already." The elder told her. Hicca smiled as she looked down at her arm. She had done it, she was able to control her powers.

"That…that actually worked!" She cheered and jumped. Gothi laughed lightly as Hicca jumped off of the ground. "I can't believe I was able to do that." She said as her grin continued to grow.

"You can do so much more Hicca, but it will take more time." Gothi told her as she smiled at the girl.

"But what about the danger that the dragons were talk-" Hicca began but when the door of the temple creaked open and both of them looked over to see who had entered the temple.

"Oi, Hicca! You in here?" The person called out and Hicca groaned realizing that it was Tuffnut.

"Yeah! I'm here…" She groaned and walked over to the temple doorway where he was standing. He looked at her clearly surprised that she was in the temple.

"What are you doing here?"

"Nothing." She snapped quickly. He couldn't know what had just happened or why it was happening. She didn't even know why it was all happening still.

"Whatever… Come on, training's about to start." He turned away and began walking back to the arena as Hicca followed with a huff. As they walked to the arena Tuffnut couldn't help wondering why Hicca had been at the temple. The temple was hardly used aside from weddings and funerals, so why was Hicca hanging out there with Gothi?

* * *

When Hicca and Tuffnut finally got to the arena they were greeted with glares from Astrid, though her glare was mostly locked on Hicca. "Can we get started yet? We've had to wait too long for Bad Luck, we shouldn't have to wait any longer." The blond said and Hicca rolled her eyes at Astrid.

"Yes we can all get started since we're all here. Now that we're all here, get with your partners and each of you, grab a bucket." Gobber told the group and pointed over to the wall where six buckets full of water. The groups walked over and picked up a bucket. "Today, we'll be testing just how well you all are doing with your partners." The blacksmith told them before he walked over to the lever of the cage and pulled it so that the doors opened.

"Today is all about teamwork." Gobber told the teens as green gas filled the arena and cut the groups off from the others. "You and your partner will have to work together just the Hideous Zippleback heads do." The blacksmith told them as they looked around the arena, though it was harder to see with the thick green gas all around them. "One head breaths the gas while the other one lights it. Your job is to tell which is which and throw the water on the head that can light the gas. No spark to light the gas, no fire." He finished and once he did the arena filled with silence as the teens looked around the arena, trying to see through the gas.

Hicca stuck close to Tuffnut as she tried to see through the gas. The last two dragons had told her about some kind of danger that she still didn't know about. Would this dragon tell her more and finally give her some kind of answer that she had never gotten?

"_Rider…"_ The sound of another voice hissing made Hicca's whole body to freeze. This was just like when she had heard the Nadder and the Gronckle speak. She knew where the voice was coming from and who it belonged to.

Tuffnut walked slowly, keeping his guard up in case the dragon suddenly came out from the gas until he noticed that his partner wasn't moving. He looked at her annoyed but face quickly filled with worry when he saw that she was panicking. "Hicca, you okay?" He asked as he stepped closer to her as his guard went down. Hicca looked over at him and she opened her mouth to speak, but the sound of something moving close to them caused the two partners to jump and look around, trying to see what was hiding in the gas.

"You named Hicca…" The voice hissed and it took a moment for Hicca to realize that the voice was different from the other one. Both voices were low and hissed, but the one that had just spoken was slightly sharper than the other.

"She is Hope…" The softer voice hissed and Hicca looked around the gas, trying to find the dragon.

"Yes… She is Hope…" The sharper voice hissed.

"What are you talking about?" Hicca whispered

"Hicca, are you alright?" Tuffnut asked

"If that dragon shows either of it's heads I'll-" Tuffnut to look at where he had heard the voice come from and quickly figured out that it was Snotlout speaking. He looked around and spotted his friend and Astrid as the gas started to fade around them. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything his friend shouted, "There!" before throwing his water.

"Wait!" Astrid cried to stop Snotlout from throwing his bucket but was too late. The water hit the shadowy shape in the gas and the shadows cried out.

"Hey! It's us idiot." Ruffnut shouted as she and Fishlegs stepped closer to the group.

"Your butt is getting bigger sis if you're being mistaken for a dragon." Tuffnut snickered and Ruffnut shot a glare at her brother.

"Shut up!" She shouted before throwing her bucket at him and knocking her brother to the ground.

"Ow!" Tuffnut shouted as he was knocked onto the ground.

"You deserve that." Hicca muttered as she went back to looking at the gas. Tuffnut glared up at his partner from the ground but she ignored him as she looked for the dragon. She knew the Zippleback was around them, but where?

"Um, guys… We should probably keep our voices down." Fishlegs said as he looked around shaking as he looked around. "Zipplebacks are stealth dragons and-"

"Will you stop that?" Snotlout said, cutting Fishlegs off again. "We'll be fine." he said confidently as he crossed his arms over his chest. As soon as those words left his mouth though another swoosh came from the gas and caused everyone to jump slightly. The arena fell silence as the teens looked around, trying to figure out where the dragon was until Tuffnut cried out as he was pulled into the gas.

"Tuff!" Ruffnut cried and was about to run into the gas but Astrid stopped the female twin by grabbing her arm.

"Wait!" The other blonde shouted. The twin looked over at the other girl just before both girls and Snotlout were knocked down by the Zippleback swinging it's tail on the ground. The three started to get up but the tail came out from the gas again and swung the three across to the wall of the arena.

"Chances of survival is dwindling into signal digits." Fishlegs muttered as one of the head slithered out from the gas.

"Now Fishlegs!" Gobber shouted from the side and the large blond jumped, nearly dropping the bucket before throwing the water onto the head which growled and gas breathed out from it's mouth.

"Oh… Wrong head…" He laughed nervously before the head roared. He screamed and ran from the dragon, leaving Hicca alone in front of the two headed dragon.

The other head lifted out of the gas and relieved that it had Tuffnut by the back of his vest in it's mouth. "Put me down!" He shouted and the dragon did as he said. The other head dropped Tuffnut before sparking at Hicca.

"_Hello Hope…" _The Zippleback head hissed in unison as the forced Tuffnut to stay down onto the ground by it's foot. As the dragon stepped on him the dragon's claws curled just above the bone of his shoulder, not breaking the bone but breaking the skin of his shoulder. Tuffnut cried out in pain as the blood started to stain his tunic.

"Tuff!" Ruffnut cried out from the sideline as her twin cried out in pain.

"_You must save you friend..."_ The softer voice, the head that sparked the gas, hissed.

"…_But is you going to do?"_ The shaper voice, the head that breathed the gas, hissed to her.

Hicca felt herself start to shake as she lifted her hand. "Get back…" She said, her hand shaking as she spoke. The heads snickered and that caused something to snap in her. "Get back! Now!" She shouted and took a step forward. The heads stopped snickering and their faces filled with shock before they took a step back, lifting their foot off of Tuffnut.  
_"You must take a stand…"_ The gas head hissed as they backed into their cage.

"…_You must stand tall…"_ The other head hissed and Hicca looked at them, wondering what they were talking about now.

"_...Only then will you defeat him…"_ They hissed in unison as they stepped into their cage. Hicca stared at them in shock before pulling the lever to close the doors of their cage.

"Who is "He"?" She wondered out loud in a whisper to herself before she turned to face the others who were all standing, except Tuffnut who was still on the ground, in shock over what had just happened. Silence stilled the arena until Ruffnut snapped out of her shock.

"Tuff!" She cried and everyone else snapped out of their shock as Ruffnut kneeled down and helped her brother sit up. Gobber shook his head as he remained in slight shock over what his assistant had just done, but he quickly told himself that there was more important issues at hand. They had all failed the lesson, the most important lesson in training.

"Hicca take Tuffnut to the medical hut." He told her as Ruffnut helped her brother up. The twins looked over at their teacher wondering what he was thinking. "Ruffnut, you need to stay. Everyone needs to have a talk, but Tuffnut needs medical attention." He explained and Ruffnut nodded as Hicca walked over to the twins. Tuffnut and Hicca walked out of the arena hearing Gobber shouting, "The rest of you lot, we're having a talk, now!"

* * *

**Hey everyone. So there's been a lot going on in my life and it's been affecting me. I've been trying to keep all of my issues from mixing into my writing, but it has. Please go to the next chapter for a full explanation of what's going on.**


	8. Chapter 8

I've come to terms with the fact that my story has become very emotionless and slow because as much as I want to do my best I'm not. My personal life has gotten too crazy and all my creativeness has been drained away from me because of it.

This is how crazy my life has gotten: My mom is having meltdowns over paperwork and money, my step-dad is overstressed with work and the money and paperwork, my brother is being a complete ass by avoiding all of us to stay with our biological dad who would rather be my brother's friend then his parent, and I am trying my best to make everything easier on my mom and step-dad while trying to keep my anxiety under control. And on top of all of this I'm about to start my senior year of high school at a new school and I feel like there is the pressure on me to complete my senior year because my cousin has just dropped out of his senior year.

I've thought out the idea for the story, but making it actually good really hard at the moment because I've stopped caring about how my story goes. It's too slow and emotionless and that's how I've been feeling lately. I can plan out this story, but right now I can't write it.

I've planned out five stories which I really want to do:

**First Story-Rider's Destiny**

**Sequel-Riding Straight into Storms**

**Prequel-Grounded (Valka's story)**

**Sequel to Riding Straight into Storms-No name yet, but is set two years after RSiS**

**And Finally the Final Story-No name also, but is set three years after RSiS's sequel.**

I need time to calm down and get my life in order before I start writing this big story again. I need to take a month or two off. I want to finish this idea and write out all of these stories, but to do that I need to figure out how to deal with my issues without letting it affect my stories. I need a break from this.

I'll keep Rider's Destiny up, but when I feel like I'm ready to write again I'll rewrite it again. I'm thinking about writing a bunch of oneshot stories. I'm going to be planning out all of these stories on the side of trying to stabilize my life and working on my school work, and while I'm doing this I want to know what really works better. I had the idea of what I was going to do in this story, but it became more about the Riders Culture and Powers over being a part of Tuff and Hicca. I wanted there to be a lot of both, but it clearly isn't going to work out when I'm like this at the moment.

I've got a lot of ideas for this series of stories, but much of what continues throughout them starts with Rider's Destiny so I want to lay out some of my ideas.

**Tuffnut and Hicca's relationship: **Hicca is very anit-viking, so she won't be as attracted to Tuffnut. What I am wondering is if Tuffnut isn't attracted to Hicca or is he. I at first thought Tuff having a small crush or just a simple attraction to her was a good idea, but I changed my mind because I thought it was too much. I might go back to the attraction idea, but I'm still a little unsure about it. I also don't know if I want to keep the partnership in the training arena and if they should be partners still.

**Astrid: **I've made Astrid too angry towards Hicca, but I feel like that could be a normal thing since I've experience girls hating girls just for little things. That was the route I went, but it didn't work out as well as I wanted it too. I really think I should have made her more emotionless towards Hicca until it got deeper into training when her anger comes out.

**The Twin's Family: **I've got an idea I'm sticking to with the twins' family. Their mother is dead, but I'm wondering what I should do about their father. They could have a good relationship with him or a bad one because they've gotten a little crazier as teens. It's a little thing, but it will affect the twins deeply throughout the story and series.

**Snotlout: **I've been wondering about Hicca and Snotlout's relationship for a while. Should they be more distance or should they have a sibling rivalry relationship where Snotlout kind of bugs Hicca, but he takes it more of a joke while she's a bit more serious about it.

These are the things I've been feeling conflicted about and will affect the future stories. I need some feedback about what you guys think because when I take other's ideas into consideration I get a better idea about what to do with this story, so for now I'm going to be working on planning this story on the side until my personal situation has gotten better and I'm prepared to write this again.

I'm really story for doing this, but I need a break from writing this and trying to work on all of these stories. I'll be back when I've get settled into my new school and find some better stability in my life. Again, I'm really sorry about this but I need some time away from this idea to sort it out better and write it when I've gotten my life in a place where I feel more stabler than I am right now.

I'm going to be keeping this story up till I'm ready to write again so if there's anything you want to say you can say it still and give me any feedback about what I need to work on.


End file.
